The new JiR Team Scot rider has taken a methodically approach to the challenge of adapting to a MotoGP machine, and improved every time he has taken the 2007 RCV out on track.

"Today was very good - a perfect day!" declared the former 250cc ace. "We improved by around one second on race tyres and my feeling on the bike has improved a lot by changing some key settings. My lap time of 1min 40.3secs on race tyres I'm very happy with - in fact I'm happy about this whole test!

"The main reason is that I don't really like this circuit too much - especially for testing - so this is a good sign. I can go to the holidays happy that we have improved the bike. We have made it a little better stability-wise under braking, but we can still improve. The front-end stability in fast corners has been getting better and better today with the changes we've made," concluded Dovizioso, who set a best lap time of 1min 39.747secs using a qualifying tyre.

Despite his perfect day, Dovizioso's former 250cc rival Jorge Lorenzo edged him out by just 0.283secs to be the top rookie at the test.