Even after surprising itself in the first two winter tests, headlined by a perfect one-two sweep last time out at Sepang, Rizla Suzuki has made further improvements to its impressive new GSV-R800 ahead of the final outing of 2006.

The new Suzuki made an instant impact when an early version, consisting of a 2007 spec 800cc engine in a 990cc chassis, was given to the race team immediately after the season-ending Valencian Grand Prix - and, by the time the team had packed up two days later, Chris Vermeulen had lapped faster than all but Honda's Dani Pedrosa!

Then, during the next test at Sepang, John Hopkins set the pace on the last two of the three days - with Vermeulen closely behind him - as Hopper beat the 990cc lap record from September's Malaysian Grand Prix and circulated almost a second quicker than his own best lap-time on the 990 Suzuki! The result was a major boost for a team which failed to win a single MotoGP race during the 990cc era from 2002-2006.

However, several of Suzuki's main rivals were absent from the Sepang test, including five-times world champion Valentino Rossi and the factory Ducati team. Rossi and Ducati will return for the Jerez test, held from November 28-30, but Suzuki won't be surrendering its current high ground and is bringing new engine control strategies and mapping information - developed on the dyno in Japan - to the test.

"I didn't really want the last test at Sepang to end as we were making great progress with the bike," admitted Hopkins. "I hope that we can continue to do that at Jerez and we will also get the chance to see where we stand against other teams, as most of our competitors will be present. Suzuki has so far lived up to its promise of giving us a bike that will be on the pace for next year and this test will see how far we still have to go!"

"This test should be interesting because we are expecting the temperatures to be a lot lower than the recent tests," added Vermeulen. "It will give us an opportunity to see how the 800 and the Bridgestones perform in these sort of conditions. The Factory has worked on the info that John and I gave them from Sepang and Valencia so hopefully we will have some new things to help us move forward in readiness for next season. We really need to have a good test at Jerez so we can look forward to 2007 with continued optimism."

Suzuki test rider Nobuatsu Aoki will be joining Hopkins and Vermeulen at Jerez, in what looks like being a completely different type of test due to the colder air temperatures that will give less grip on the 4.4km circuit, which held the first race of the 2006 season.