May not have the outright power of the IL4's nowadays, but weren't the IL4's expected to pee all over it on the straights?
They didn't seem to do it at Losail though did they, despite having a kilometre long straight to play on the 999 looked as if it could pretty much hold it's own down there. May have lost out a bit, but only about 20 metres or so which it seemed to make up again on other parts of the circuit
The Suzuki is obviously hot favourite, but I think giving the 999 'little or no chance' is short sighted. As with all these things, let the results speak for themselves...we'll see.
And if it hastens a V4 from Ducati all well and good