"For the first day, the feeling was not so bad and certainly my body is in much better condition than it was in Qatar in the last tests," said the Japanese, ranked third fastest after his 73 Tuesday laps. "I didn't find it hard to get into the 1min 32secs this morning and then we began the testing work. We tested many different areas - suspension, engine and electronics and by the end of the day the rear suspension was getting much better. All in all, I think today was quite a good day."

Meanwhile, new Suzuki rider Fonsi Nieto was just one place and 0.3secs behind factory veteran Kagayama, despite a small fall.

"I am really happy with how today went," declared the Spaniard. "After the holiday it was good to get back on the bike and straightaway I felt at home on it. At the last tests, the bike didn't feel as if it was my bike, but today I was happy on it right from the start and this makes me feel very good. We tried many different things today and we have a lot of good information to consider. I had a very small crash, at MG Corner, when I lost the front end. It was probably because I had a new rear tyre and suddenly I went down. But there was no injury to me at all and I don't think the bike was even damaged much."

Alstare's third rider, Max Neukirchner, was a further 1.8secs back after a somewhat problematic opening day.

"Today we had some problems with the electronics and there was a lot of work to do, but at the end of the day I was quite happy because we had got one bike working pretty well," said the German. "Then we began the work on the other bike and that is going OK also. My main problem today is me! I had a bit of a sore throat and my head ached a bit so maybe I'm getting a bit of flu or something. Because of that I found it hard to concentrate on the bike for long periods, so I hope I will feel better tomorrow - as I know there is a lot to do and I want to do it!"

The first WSBK test session of 2008 continues on Wednesday and concludes on Thursday.