Capirossi looking ahead to 2009

The Italian has been hampered by a number of accident-induced injuries which have stalled the momentum of his season, but says he can't wait for the first winter test at Valencia the week after the season finale at the same venue.

"The season has been tough for me, because after Barcelona I lost my condition and I lost time," he said. "Now I am 100 percent fit again, and this is good to try and finish the season in the best way.

"I am already looking to work for the next year and we are still working hard with Suzuki and we have a lot to do this winter. We have to improve the bike a lot. At the moment it is not too bad, but we have to take a couple more steps to be really competitive.

"Everybody is trying to do the same thing, but we know what we have to do and for sure we will try to do our best for the last two races of this year and then we can start working for the 2009 season."

Capirossi added that he expected Suzuki to bring a hybrid development of the 2008 GSV-R to Valencia, which will then evolve into next year's bike by January.

"Normally for Valencia we will have one prototype bike, not 100 percent different from this one," he said. "But we will use it to decide what we have to do for the next test at Phillip Island and for sure in January we will have a completely new bike."