Redding targeting top six with Aprilia

Scott Redding is aiming to at least match last year's best result for the Aprilia RS-GP during his debut 2018 season with the factory team.

"I want to put the Aprilia in the top six, last year Aleix [Espargaro] has shown that it is a result within our reach and I think the new bike has even more potential, there are still some new parts coming like the new engine," said the Englishman.

"We still have some testing to do, after that my main priority will be to keep improving the bike race by race and try to be as competitive as possible".

Redding - joining Aprilia after stints at Gresini Honda (2014), Marc VDS Honda (2015) and Pramac Ducati(2016-2017) - got this first taste of the new Aprilia during the recent Sepang test.

The former Moto2 title runner-up left Malaysia just 23rd on the timesheets, nine places and 0.887s behind the best lap by Espargaro.

"The test in Malaysia has been a sort of shakedown. At the beginning, when we simply put the 2017 setting on the 2018 bike, it didn't work for me.

"For Aleix it wasn't a big difference, but he has a lot more experience on this bike. We started to work on that, even experimenting, to make me feel comfortable on the bike.

"At the end of the three days I was happy, we found some solutions that we'll keep using and, most important, we found the direction to work on for the future.

"I've been faster every day, cutting the gap with the front guys and I feel there's still a lot of room for improvements".

Espargaro claimed the RS-GP's best MotoGP result of sixth at both Qatar and Aragon last season.