New suspension raises Irvine's hopes

Irvine, who scored the team's only points of the year when he finished fourth in the season opener in Australia, tried the updated components at Silverstone last week as his shook the R3 down for this weekend's race at Spa.

"After a one-day shakedown last week, I am happier with the set-up of the R3," said Irvine. "The team has made a few component changes and this has made a difference.

"For me this weekend should be an enjoyable race after the monotonous Hungarian circuit."

Team-mate Pedro de la Rosa did not try the new parts, but the Spaniard is expecting the recalcitrant R3 to remain a difficult beast on the flowing Spa circuit.

"Spa is a good track to put the R3 steering through its paces since there are so many corners both fast and slow," he said. "Despite our changes I suspect that this weekend's racing will remain difficult."

Neither Irvine nor de la Rosa has a great record at Spa, with Irvine's fourth place in 1999 the only top six finish between them.