PICTURES: KR212V makes track debut.

The new Team Roberts KR212V made its track debut during testing at Sepang on Monday, when Kenny Roberts Jr took it to the 13th fastest lap time out of 20 riders present.

Team personnel feel that the new machine, an 800cc RC212V engine housed in a KR chassis that the team has built from scratch in just 90 days, is much closer to being 'ready to race' than the 2006-spec KR211V was at this time last year - and that machine went on to take a podium finish.

Despite having missed the post-2006 season tests, Roberts lapped within 1.8secs of fastest man, and former Suzuki team-mate, John Hopkins on day one of the test - and was just 0.8secs from third fastest Valentino Rossi as Kenny "got back into the swing of riding."

"I think that technically we got a lot done for our first day," he added. "We tried a total of three swing-arms and two linkages today so we got some of the bigger items out of the way. We still need to try a new fabricated chassis tomorrow, or at least by the end of the remaining two days.

"Basically, the times this morning were ok and I was getting down to quite a few low 2min 4secs laps. I'm just stuck right there at the moment. We've just got to get the bike going round the corners a little bit faster. With these bikes it's all corner speed - you never really square anything off like we used to do on the V5 and if you're spinning it you've got to figure out how to not spin it. With a handful more power you could get away with more mistakes than you can at the moment - consistency wise.

"It's been a pretty standard first day. I probably would have liked to have gotten into the 2min 3secs laps, so we've got to see if we can get the bike going round the corners a little bit better tomorrow, which we will. The first day here is always just getting back into the swing of things. We've got a lot on our plate trying to build a bike and come out ready to go on the first day," he concluded.