Friday saw Capirossi and Vermeulen conduct two race simulations each, allowing them to compare the 2008 Phillip Island race tyre and the proposed new single spec tyre that all riders will be using in 2009.

Vermeulen set a best lap time 0.2sec slower than Capirossi, but 0.213sec inside his best race lap at his home grand prix, set on his way to 15th position.

"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!" said Chris. "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!" added the Australian, confirming that engine performance remains a weakness. "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."

The fastest Kawasaki rider at the test was Marco Melandri, who set a best lap time of 1min 31.8sec. That lap time was 0.115sec under the best race lap by a ZX-RR rider in the Australian Grand Prix, indicating that Suzuki and Kawasaki have both made broadly equal progress in ultimate performance.

The first test of 2009 takes place at Sepang in Malaysia from February 5-7.