Scott Redding is aiminܫg 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 engiꦉne," said the Englishman.

"We still have some testing to do, after that my main p🌱riority will be to keep improving the bike race b🧸y race and try to be as competitive as possible".

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

The former Moto2 tit𝔍le runner-up left Malaysia just 23rd on the timesheets, nine places and 0.887s b𓄧ehind 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, bu🍰t 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, wꩲe found some solutions that we'll keep using and, most important, we found the direction to work on for the fut🔴ure.

"I've been faster e⛎very 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 sixt💛h at both Qatar and Aragon last se🃏ason.