Suzuki continue development work at Kyalami.

Four days of testing at Kyalami allowed the Team Suzuki Alstare riders, Pierfrancesco Chili and Stephane Chambon, to learn more about their GSX-R750 race bikes - with Chili lapping well inside the circuit record.

Cool conditions in the final morning were followed by hot and humid conditions in the afternoon, making it less than perfect for setting fast lap times. Both Italian ace Pierfrancesco Chili and his French teammate Stephane Chambon spent the time racking up laps and discovering the limits of their bikes.

Despite this evolutionary approach to the bikes development, Chili continued his daily improvement by putting in a lap of 1min 42.347secs - nearly a second inside the current lap record.

Despite the impressive lap times, Chili found the going far from easy: "Today was quite a hard day for me," admitted the Italian. "Four days is a lot of testing, but we gathered a lot of very good information. In the afternoon, I began feeling a little tired and it was hard to keep my concentration up. But I kept going as we need as much information as possible."

Chili then gave a rundown of the new bikes strengths and weaknesses: "The new GSX-R750 Suzuki is quite a bit better then last year's bike and I'm very pleased about that. The handling is good and we managed to improve it a bit more while we were here, so that's very good. Already I'm quite fast in the turns, but exiting is a little bit of a problem that I am working on."

"Part of it is maybe because we are very high up here and the altitude affects the bike's power," added Chili. "But, we've got some more tests lined up and I think we can achieve more in time for the first race. I'm pleased with progress we're making and looking forward to the next tests and getting the bike ready for the first race of the year."

Teammate Chambon was also impressive, notching up a lap of 1min 43.6secs as he continued to get to grips with a Superbike.

Chambon explained the different configurations he had tested in his quest for performance: "I tried my other bike today - with a slightly longer wheelbase and some of Frankie's settings. It felt a bit more stable generally, but I also found a small front end chatter. The bike also had a different gearbox, which I didn't like quite as much as my first bike. So, we tried the gearbox of my first bike in the second and I preferred it."

"Today's conditions were better in the morning, but I was trying a lot of different things out, so I really didn't have a chance to improve on my lap times. But, in the afternoon, we shortened the wheeIbase again, changed the suspension a little and I was able to go quite a bit faster. That made me happy."

"I think the tests have gone well generally, but at this moment I am not completely confident with the bike, I am still learning," revealed Chambon. "At the moment it's more hard work then fun, but as I learn more that'll change and I'll soon start having fun again. I'm hoping that I'll get to that stage in the next tests and then I can really have a go at the first race of the season."

At the end of the tests, both the riders and team were happy with what they had achieved at Kyalami and were already looking forward to the next round of tests and getting the new GSXR R750 in even better shape for the season ahead.

Lap times from Kyalami: Final day:

1. Pierfrancesco Chili - 52 laps, best lap 1min 42.3secs
2. Stephane Chambon - 51 laps, best lap 1min 43.6secs
Total number of laps completed at Kyalami:

Pierfrancesco Chili - 174 laps
Stephane Chambon - 182 laps
Best overall lap time:

1. Pierfrancesco Chili - 1min 42.3secs
2. Stephane Chambon - 1min 43.6secs