Rizla Suzuki and MSS Discovery Kawasaki have both finished their testing programme at Almeria - with both teams pleased with their individual progress.
Two times Japanese Superbike Champion Atsushi Watanabe worked steadily through every chassis variation and combination, allowing him and his technicians to learn more about the set-up of the GSX-R1000. He completed a whopping 92 laps and dropped his lap time by a further 0.7secs to 1min 37.9secs which he posted on his last lap of the day.
"I very happy with my Rizla Suzuki now," commented Watanabe. "We work hard on understanding bike and tyres. I have feel from my bike so it is good test."

BSB Rookie of the Year Tom Sykes completed 82 laps and also worked on optimising his chassis set-up rather than going all out for a fast lap. He set his fastest lap of the test on day two with a time of 1min 37.3secs. But managed a massive highside yesterday.
Sykes said: "I had a good day, we definitely made progress. I know I could have gone faster but we decided to gather data which will stand us in good stead in the future. All in all it his been good - we have got a lot of information for the electronics and can learn from that. The Pirellis feel fine, all the way through this test I’ve had good rear grip."
MSS’S Stuart Easton said: “It’s been another good day for us, with more progress which is all positive. We started off here at Almeria doing something like a 1m 40.7s lap and today we’re down to a 38.2. It’s just been a natural progression as we explore all the avenues and set-up options for our new Pirelli tyres. We’ve had no dramas as yet, touch wood, and we’re not a million miles off the quick boys. This is despite an early engine spec and the fact that ours is a new bike for 2008. We’ve rolled a brand new bike out of the van for the first ever test but we’re really happy at the moment with how things have gone.”
Billy McConnell added: “Another good day where we’ve gone quicker still. I’m still adapting to the bike and chipping away at the times and a decent set-up. It’s not the first round of the series for a while, so we don’t want to dump it – that would be the daftest thing to do – so slow and steady progress is the way to go. The bike feels good and after a very enjoyable three days I can’t wait to get back on the bike at Guadix!”