Up against the full might of the established factory riders on their V4 heavyweights, the Dutch rider was fastest of all for a spell, and was only beaten in the closing minutes by just one rider - former multi-250 champion and 500 GP winner Max Biaggi (Yamaha).

That was on the second of the three days. On the third day, in slightly better conditions, Jurgen was still right up among the fastest times when the England-based team decided to pack up while others were still out on the track.

By then, the mission had been accomplished, and Proton Team KR felt able to preserve their rider, machine and resources for the continuing testing program, which sees the IRTA testers move to the Valencia circuit for three more days.

"We had some new things to try even since the Jerez tests last weekend," said a delighted Van den Goorbergh. "We ran through new suspension links, chassis settings, engine tuning and other things, and we know now that we have reached a level where the bike is ready to race. We have gone forward every time.

"The most important thing I wanted to see at Estoril was if I could keep up with the V4s down this track's very long straight. The answer is: Yes. As the bike is now, I could stay in the slipstream of all but the very fastest V4s, and I could even pull out and outbrake some of them into the corner at the far end," he continued.

"If we can sharpen up the carburation we can make the top speed even better. And on the corners, there are not many who can keep up with the KR3," he concluded.

Team manager Chuck Aksland outlined the progress so far, and further progress to come before the season starts at the Japanese GP on April 8th.

"We started our testing agenda in December, with the basic bike. We are right on target, and Jurgen is very happy with the balance and speed of the bike.

"Now we are working on fine tuning and settings for different tracks. It means that when we arrive at a new track in the forthcoming year, we should be able to get the set-up close in the first half-hour of practice, and be able to concentrate on tyre testing and preparing for the race instead of still experimenting with different settings."

The team are continuing with other developments, including a carbon-fibre swing-arm, and special wind-tunnel-developed bodywork.

Proton Team KR will put Jurgen up against his rivals again at the Valencia tests that follow directly, and has scheduled two more private tests - in Barcelona and Malaysia - before the start of the year.

This year's Proton KR3 machine is a refined and fully developed version of the compact Mk3 model that first raced after the start of last season.

Team Telefónica MoviStar Suzuki riders Kenny Roberts and Sete Gibernau finished testing early at the Estoril Grand Prix circuit outside Lisbon - with the test schedule completed and information gathered for engineers to move on to the next stage of development for the latest Suzuki Grand Prix racer. 

But the riders stayed on all the same - with a special duty to perform after the other teams have packed up and moved on to the next round of tests in Valencia. Kenny and Sete will don their leathers and warm up their bikes again Saturday to film a special international TV commercial for Telefónica MoviStar. This is a follow-up to the successful commercial filmed last year, and will be shown world wide, promoting motorcycle GP racing as well as the Spanish mobile communications company's core business. 

The tests went better than at the previous round at Jerez, with Roberts lying second overall after the first day, not only inside the lap record, but faster than the previous best-ever time, set in practice for the Portuguese GP last year. Gibernau took another day to set his best time, also much faster than on his previous visit to the track. On the third day, his schedule complete, Roberts took time off, and Gibernau devoted himself to wrapping up a few remaining tyre tests. 

"Lap times aren't the main goal here - testing is part of a process, rather than an end in itself. All the same, it's good to see both riders going faster than last year," said Team Manager Garry Taylor.   "We still had some components and combinations that we wanted to test, and we accomplished that within the first two days. "We test again in Japan in three weeks, when engineers will have had a chance to consolidate the information and date we've gathered, and to take the machine one stage closer to race readiness for the start of the season in April." 

Tohru Ukawa 6th, 1m40.535 sec. (68 laps, 286 kilometres) - "I am quite happy, the team and myself we are satisfied with the work we’ve been developing this days. But now I just want to be concentrate, working step by step. We found today an almost perfect combination of suspension set up and tyres compound, and that has allowed me to improve my lap times. I didn’t use qualifying tyres looking for a fast lap, because right now the most important thing is get the feeling with race tyres. Next Monday and Tuesday we will test at Valencia, I like this circuit, in 1999 I won there with my Honda NSR 250, but of course this time it will be so different."

TIMES
1. Loris Capirossi, West Honda Pons, 1m40.109 sec.
2. Carlos Checa, Marlboro Yamaha Team, 1m40.166 sec.
3. Tohru Ukawa, Repsol YPF Honda, 1m40.535 sec.
4. Norick Abe, Antena 3 Yamaha d’ Antín, 1m40.898 sec.
5. Valentino Rossi, Nastro Azurro Honda, 1m41.154 sec.
6. J. VD Goorbergh, Proton Team KR, 1m41.164 sec.
7. Alex Barros, West Honda Pons, 1m41.283 sec.
8. Sete Gibernau, Telefónica Movistar Suzuki, 1m41.675 sec.
9. José Luis Cardoso, Antena 3 Yamaha d’ Antín, 1m42.567 sec.
10.Leon Haslam, Shell Advance Honda, 1m42.915 sec.