Repsol Honda's Pol Espargaro is more than satisfied with his MotoGP race performance so far but feels with exact opposite about qualifying.

The Spaniard, who is in his first season with the works HRC team, finished in 13th on Sunday - which he says is 'disgusting' when taken in isolation - but only six seconds off the winner when he started from 15th on the grid at a track which has never favoured Honda.

"Well, at the moment, here in Honda in this track for us it was one of the worst places by far. We had no one session where we said, 'We're in an okay pace or okay lap time'," said Espargaro, speaking at the track.

"Even like that I was one of the fastest of the race, so it means I have the feeling I'm sat on the best bike of the grid by far. Just we need to put everything together. We need a good Saturday, this is going to put us on top of the time attack list.

"So, starting from the first two rows, and if today we started there we would have finished on the podium for sure. But just the problem we start in 15th and in the first three, four laps we lose four seconds.

"And then before my first mistake I was 2.2s, so I recovered a lot of time at a place normally Honda is struggling and normally Honda is not good.

"Our performance was outstanding. The only problem is we are not putting everything together. But I feel strong as to be world champion at the end of the year, but we need to put everything together starting with Saturday.

"If we improved Saturdays we can be fighting for the podium in every race."