Troy Bayliss gave Ducati a huge boost by putting the Italian manufacturer's all-new 1098 machine on top of the timesheets on the final day of World Superbike testing at Losail.

The 38-year-old Australian, who had been third on both of the first two days of running at the Qatari circuit, upped his pace to set the best time of the three days in 1:58.100 on the new machine, leaving the 2001 and 2006 world champion delighted.

"We're making good progress, the last couple of days we've been trying so many different things and seeing where we can go with this bike," said Bayliss.

"Sometimes it's frustrating because I want to go fast, like everyone else, but when the other guys were going fast we were still on old tyres and working on the settings.

"After lunch today we found a bit of a way and were happy, so we decided to throw a few tyres at it and the times were coming good.

"That's the fastest I've ever been round here by about half-a-tenth and I did that time on a 999 with a qualifying tyre. I did about ten laps on the same tyre, mostly in the mid-58s, but I had to ride really hard to get those lap times and I'm still not so confident with the back of the bike.

"But now I can relax knowing we're going in the right direction and enjoy my Christmas until our next test at Phillip Island at the start of January."

Noriyuki Haga was second quickest for the third day in a row, three tenths of a second behind, but was this time one spot ahead of his team-mate Troy Corser.

Carlos Checa was again fourth fastest on his Ten Kate Honda with Fonsi Nieto fifth for Alstare Suzuki.

Michel Fabrizio's Ducati and Yukio Kagayama's Alstare Suzuki were next up.

The slowest of the eight runners present was double British Superbike champion Ryuichi Kiyonari, who was having his maiden run-out for Ten Kate Honda.

Jamie O'Leary / Eurosport