Rizla Suzuki opted to test in Australia (alongside Kawasaki) as opposed to with Honda, Yamaha, and Ducati in Jerez. The team have just issued their thoughts on the final test of 2008.

Loris Capirossi:

“I really enjoyed the test because we tried a lot of things and were able to get through lots of testing, which produced very clear and positive results. We compared many things, tested two new chassis’ and lots of new parts – we now understand much better how they work together. Today we were able to compare the old and new bikes and the 2009 prototype is definitely better, especially when the tyre is worn we can maintain a better lap-time, so this is a good step. We still have some work to do – especially to improve the engine still further – but it has been a really positive three days for us. I did more than 200 laps and it has been a really good test. The prototype bike is already better than the recent one, but the next version we get to try should be even better because that will have lots of new developments and we will be able to use all the information from this test to improve it even further.”

Chris Vermeulen:

“It was a good test and I think I managed to get almost 250 laps done in the three days, which is about 1,100kms on the bike! We had a lot of new parts from Suzuki to try including, front forks, rear linkages, new frames and swinging arms and we also tested some control tyres from Bridgestone – which look like they will be the spec tyre for next year – and they worked pretty well with the bike straight away. We also tested the new engine spec that we had at the Valencia test and that worked pretty well – but I want more steps in the same direction! We also had some electronic modifications and with all this we were able to find some good improvements and we were consistently quicker around here than we were in the race. We have definitely taken a step forward with the bike and we certainly have a direction with all the parts that we tested here to make significant improvements in next year’s tests. I am really looking forward to the first test of next year and being able to use the new stuff that Suzuki will be able to develop from the results we have had here.”

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