Capirossi thrilled with Suzuki's progress

The veteran Italian's third place in the Czech Republic was Suzuki's third consecutive top three finish following Chris Vermeulen's podiums in Germany and America.

The team will test a new chassis at Brno tomorrow in the hope of making a major step forward in 2009, and Capirossi believes they now have all the ingredients in place to become regular victory contenders again.

"Now we start to really follow what we need to go quicker," he said. "Like I said yesterday, our bike is really not too bad, but we lose a couple of tenths, and this couple of tenths is not so easy to find. That's why we're going to test a different chassis.

"I know Suzuki are still working really hard on the engine side, and on the dyno in Japan. I don't really know when we can test the engine, but maybe after Motegi. We have a lot of new things. But Suzuki are pretty open. I can see them working really hard to make many different products."

He also paid tribute to the support he had received from the team in the wake of his injury at Catalunya, and confirmed that he is on the verge of completing a deal to stay on at Suzuki for 2009.

"For me this is like a victory, because I've really enjoyed working for Suzuki all season," said Capirossi.

"I'm talking about the future, but at this moment I'm not signed with Suzuki. I'd say our agreement is nearly done, but I'm not signed yet.

"For sure I really love working with Suzuki, and I'm saying that not because I finished on the podium today, but because a couple of races ago - when I was not in good condition - Suzuki stayed really close to me and supported me.

"This is really good. It's really nice to have people believe me. This is why I'm ready to do everything (for Suzuki) because my dream is to fight for victory again and I know we can."

Capirossi felt that Suzuki could have been even more competitive at Brno had the weather not disrupted their preparations.

"We know we made a little step on the settings but the problem was on Saturday we had shit conditions and rain and we could do nothing," he said.

"This morning in the warm-up we tried to change a lot on the bike but unfortunately the weather was so cold that the tyres didn't work in the right way and we also lost time this morning. This was why we decided to go back to the settings we used on Friday.

"For sure we lost time, because this year we've never fought well all weekend. This is a problem for us. We need time to work and set up the bike. But for sure Suzuki is not bad at this moment because we've been on the podium in the last three races.

"But our target is always the top. I am here after 19 seasons not to finish sixth, seventh or eighth - we want to win. This is our target, and we can work 24 hours to find that."