Drive M7 Honda's Eugene Laverty is relishing his first crack at the 2015 RC213V-RS Open Honda at Sepang’s opening MotoGP test and has already said he wants to be challenging the Factory riders at some circuits.

The Monegasque was restricted to using 2014’s RCV1000 at Valencia but after watching the new bike in the hand’s of team-mate Nicky Hayden, Laverty is confident he can do a job on the bike next season.

Well, first of all it would be good to be challenging at the front of the Open class and at certain circuits I want to be fighting with the factory guys. Qualifying could be good for us because we have the soft tyre so hopefully we can take advantage of it,” said Laverty.

“Watching it from the side of the track I could see that it had good acceleration in corner exit. Once I got on it I felt it was comfortable but it is too early to comment on its strengths. My first impression is that I like the way you can get into the corners fast, get the bike stopped and then pick it up and exit quickly. You could say it is quite easy to attack the corners on the Honda.”

Get the new issue of Bikesport News for more on the Brit GP invasion, starring Laverty, Scott Redding, Bradley Smith and Crutchlow.