Britain's Bradley Smith is hopeful that some testing carried out on the Misano circuit might give him and the Aprilia squad slight advantage at the first of two visits to the Italian track, starting this weekend.

Smith is still standing in for the banned Andrea Iannone and is still getting to grips with the RS-GP20 both in terms of test and race trim.

"The testing we did on this track could potentially give us a slight advantage. This is Aprilia’s home race and it is on a circuit where the RS-GP has historically performed well," said Smith.

"I can’t wait to get back on the track. We have worked hard up to now trying to make up for the time we lost at the season start.

"We did well on our ‘homework’, but this is the time to take a step forward in terms of performance. The new project certainly has the potential to do it."