Small step for Byrne, giant leap for Team Roberts.

Sunday's Italian Grand Prix marked a significant step forward for the Team Roberts run Proton KR, powered by KTM, which rider Shane Byrne used to take a small step up the order to record a 16th place finish - within two-seconds of factory Suzuki rider Kenny Roberts Jr.

Mugello was the first race for the latest version of the V4 motor - and, in contrast to last time out at Le Mans, it didn't skip a beat, while also recording impressive top speed figures of 328.2 km/h, 11th-fastest of the 21 entries, as it outpaced the factory Kawasakis and Suzukis.

At the same time, the new version of the Proton KR chassis, run for the first time at Le Mans, also solved the handling difficulties that had troubled the former British Superbike champion in earlier races.

"It was a long, hard race, and I just wasn't quite fast enough to stay with them in the early laps," said Byrne, pleased to finish after crashing out on the first lap of the previous race. "Then I put my head down, and at the end I managed to pass Rolfo's Ducati for 16th, but I even thought I might be able to catch Kenny's Suzuki.

"We still need more acceleration - I have to ride the bike like a big 250. But the top speed is good, and the front-end feeling from the chassis is transformed. It's definitely coming," added the Englishman.

Team owner Kenny Roberts also marked the event as a step forward: "This weekend was very good," he said. "Earlier, we had some reliability problems with the new engine, but we seem to have put them behind us, and that's a lot better. You could say we're starting our season now.

"It's hard for us to work on reliability and on development at the same time. Now we need to concentrate on adding some performance, to take another step towards being competitive," he added.

The next race is the Catalan GP, in one week's time.