Following on from last week’s positive Malaysian test, both riders had another large workload to undertake to evaluate many new parts and settings onboard their Rizla Suzuki GSV-Rs. Today the two Rizla Suzuki racers focussed their efforts on mainly getting a good base setting for the 2008 machine at Phillip Island - a track which has proved difficult for the Suzuki in the past.

Capirossi and Vermeulen also concentrated on improving the aerodynamics of the bike as they tried new fairings around the 4.4km circuit. With a cold wind blowing directly off the sea - as it was today - Phillip Island is one of the best circuits in the world to test new aerodynamics and assess the data collected by both riders. Capirossi completed 82 laps of the track today and team-mate Vermeulen recorded 99. The Italian’s quickest time of 1’31.274 gave him ninth place overall on the time sheets with Vermeulen just behind in 10^th, as he set a fastest time of 1’31.317.

Rizla Suzuki MotoGP has two more days in Australia to continue with its in-depth analysis of the 2008 GSV-R, with further tests on aerodynamics, chassis settings, a comprehensive Bridgestone tyre test, plus a thorough assessment of other mechanical improvements and electronic control strategies.

Loris Capirossi:

“Today has been quite a tough day, but we have certainly made advances. We set out to get a good base setting for the bike and we have improved it over the day, but we still have quite a way to go. We have lots of stuff to test on the bike and we started to do that today but we still have a lot of work to do over the next two days. My crew worked really hard today and because of them we have made a lot of progress, the bike is improving all the time, but as I have said before this is a difficult track for the Suzuki so we have lots to do!”

Chris Vermeulen:

“It’s good to be back in Australia to test again, although we could do with it being a bit warmer. I got a lot of laps in today as we need to get through as much work as possible here this week. The Factory has certainly acted on the information Loris and I gave them towards the end of last year, but before we can thoroughly test the new parts we need to get the settings right, and like Loris I spent a large part of today sorting those out. I know there is more to come over the week and I hope we will improve dramatically on those times and positions.”

Phillip Island Test Day One Classification: