Suzuki has been rumbled testing a replacement for its GSV-R800 MotoGP bike at the Sugo circuit in Japan and looks to have moved away from the traditional V-four layout to a transverse inline four layout like Yamaha.

It would seem the Japanese factory is planning a return to the blue riband series in 2014 with a factory effort and this could well be the first of a line of prototypes on the way to a grid slot at wherever the series begins in 18-months' time.

The bike has four exhausts coming down into two which confirms the inline four arrangement and it hints the engine may have a crossplane crank setup a la Yamaha's M1 which also goes from four to two instead of four into two into one.

Cycle World's technincal god Kevin Cameron (a Tefal of world note) has more detail on what his brain tells him about the layout of the thing. Click here to read his musings.