The Australian Grand Prix circuit hasn't been kind to Suzuki in the dry, but Capirossi - like team-mate Chris Vermeulen - was at least pleased with the bike's performance in the slick conditions.

"I was able to ride the bike in the wet today for the first time and for me the feeling was good right away," confirmed Loris. "We changed some settings and made some more adjustments and by the time the track started to dry we think we have a good set-up for the rain."

"We had a good run in the rain this morning and know where we need to be in the wet," added rain-ace Vermeulen.

When the track dried in the afternoon, the pair duly joined their rivals in reverting back to slick tyres - on which Capirossi later suffered a fall, while riding with a Bridgestone qualifier.

"As it dried in the afternoon we were able to test a couple of bits and we went well on the race tyres, even though the track was not in the best condition because of the weather earlier," he said. "I put on a qualifier at the end of the day, but unfortunately I crashed. I am ok and will be able to continue with the test tomorrow."

Capirossi finished the day in eighth position, 1.6secs behind former Ducati team-mate Casey Stoner, while Vermeulen was a further 0.2secs adrift in eleventh.

"It has been a positive day today - although my position is not where I would want to be - we got through a lot of work and have a definite direction we want to go in," said the Australian. "When it dried out we did some tyre testing and continued to get the best set-up we can for here, and we are now closer to getting there than we have been before, we have made some big steps forward! We still have some way to go to get the bike to be as competitive as we want it for this track, but what the guys have produced over the last couple of days has really made that target closer."

The Phillip Island test concludes on Friday.