Suzuki hopeful of good race performance

The Italian finished the session in eleventh, one and a quarter seconds behind polesitter Casey Stoner. But he is still hopeful of a good result in tomorrow's race, despite the Suzuki not suiting the fast, flowing Phillip Island circuit.

"Today we improved a bit compared to yesterday, but we know this is the not the best track for us so we are quite happy with how much we have improved here since last winter's test.

"With the race tyre today my rhythm was not too bad, but we struggled a bit with the qualifiers and couldn't quite get the grip we wanted. I think we can still have a good race tomorrow but for sure it will be a little bit tough!"

Capirossi thanked his crew for repairing his bike after a heavy crash in the morning practice: "I also want to say a really big thank-you to all my team, because when I crashed this morning the bike was completely destroyed and it needed a 100 percent rebuild, but they did it in one and a half hours and that was really fantastic!"

Despite qualifying fifteenth on the grid, four places behind his teammate, local rider Chris Vermeulen was happy with his bike's set-up and performance ahead of tomorrow's race.

"I'm not too happy with my qualifying position, but we have definitely taken big steps with the bike today and on the race tyres we are a lot further up and can consistently run those times," explained the Australian.

"I am quite happy with the race tyre situation, but we still had a similar sort of problem with using the qualifiers at Phillip Island as we have had before here. The bike uses the tyre too hard and we are not quite able to maintain the grip for a whole lap which makes it quite difficult for us.

Team manager Paul Denning echoed Vermeulen's thoughts, happy with the performance of the bike even if qualifying didn't appear to reflect their feelings: "We have taken a step today, but unfortunately it hasn't shown itself in the qualifying result.

"The times are closer to the front than they have been before, but the positions have not really improved. I think we can be much stronger over race distance tomorrow.

"Loris has always gone well at Phillip Island and Chris has got a big motivation to do everything he can at his home Grand Prix - so let's hope we can produce something spectacular tomorrow!"