Rizla Suzuki MotoGP’s new signing Loris Capirossi got his first chance to ride the Suzuki GSV-R in wet conditions during today’s test at Phillip Island in Australia.

Steady rain throughout the morning at the 4.4km circuit gave the riders and crew perfect wet weather testing conditions and they made the most of it by trying the new 2008 Suzuki GSV-R in the wet for the first time. Capirossi and team-mate Chris Vermeulen were both pleased with the bike’s performance in the damp conditions and collected valuable data for future rain affected races.

Capirossi and Vermeulen were also able to get in some dry testing – after about an hour-and-a-half waiting for the track to dry - and the two Rizla Suzuki racers wasted no time by getting down to some in-depth tyre testing with Bridgestone and finding the best settings and mapping for the bike at the Phillip Island track.

Due to the delay Capirossi and Vermeulen only managed to complete 62 and 50 laps respectively today. The Italian clocked a fastest time of 1’31.545 to give him eighth place on the timesheets and Vermeulen recorded a best lap of 1’31.774 for 11th position. Capirossi suffered a crash at the end of the day, but he walked away from the incident unhurt and will be fit to join Vermeulen for the final day of the test tomorrow.

Loris Capirossi:

“I was able to ride the bike in the wet today for the first time and for me the feeling was good right away. 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. 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. 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.”

Chris Vermeulen:

“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. We had a good run in the rain this morning and know where we need to be in the wet. 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.”

from Rizla Suzuki MotoGP press