Aprilia pair chasing first points in Argentina

Having left the Qatar MotoGP season-opener empty-handed, scoring points will be the first priority for Aleix Espargaro and Scott Redding in Argentina this weekend.

Battling a fuel consumption issue for much of the race, Espargaro was nonetheless in the fight for ninth until his engine began cutting out on the final lap, leaving him 19th.

"We need to keep working. In Qatar, the feeling in the race was rather good before the problem in the end that kept us from a top ten finish that was well within our reach," Espargaro said.

"I am confident because we confirmed our strong points, especially over race distance, whereas we have room to improve our flying lap in qualifying.

"We are at the beginning of the season. We have set some ambitious goals for ourselves which will certainly not be easy to confirm, but we have all our papers in order to have a good season."

Espargaro was battling the Ducatis of Danilo Petrucci and Andrea Dovizioso for sixth place in last year's race but took himself and Dovizioso out on lap 15. Happier memories are a front row start for Suzuki in 2015.

Team-mate Scott Redding failed to score on this Aprilia debut due to 'nightmare' rear grip problems in Losail. The Englishman's best finish in Argentina was an eighth place for Pramac Ducati last season.

"The sensations after Qatar were not the best, but I am sure that we will be able to solve the problems that came up in the race," he said. "The RS-GP worked well up to that point, so apparently we missed something and that is what we will focus on in Argentina.

"With so many new components introduced on the 2018 RS-GP, it becomes essential to analyse the data and the bike's reactions carefully in order to create a working base that can then be dialled in as the weekend progresses."