A sixth place end in the event of the year matches Chris Vermeulen’s second best record so far this year in terms of the disappointment that has occurred, however the Rizla Suzuki man was happy to have staged a challenging display in Malaysia on Sunday.

Though the Aussie is heading off from MotoGP at the end of the season, he aims to return to the World Championship in the future, the 10 points gained at Sepang means he has every opportunity finishing with a good result after Valencia in a fortnights time.

Vermeulen is united in a close five racer challenge with Marco Melandri, Loris Capirossi, Alex de Angelis and Toni Elías for seventh spot overall, and he outdid all of them on Sunday to give himself a confidence boost.

“I got a good start, but in turn one there was a lot going on and I got pushed around a little bit, but I came out of it ok and was able to get my head down straight away,” Vermeulen states. “For the first four or five laps I really struggled to get a feeling in the tyres, especially on the left-hand-side, but once I got that working and into a rhythm I felt quite good. The bike worked well up until the last few laps - when the track started to dry out - and then it was very difficult through the corners, but I'm sure it wasn't easy for anyone out there.”

Adding his views on the hard work put in by his mechanics at round 16, he explains, “I think we had the speed for a top five and my guys did a great job with the motorbike to be able to give me something competitive when we hadn't done any wet testing here at all.”