Forward NGM’s Aleix Espargaro believes he is more than capable of fighting for MotoGP podiums this season given his performance at the opening Qatar round where he topped the free practice timesheets.

The youngster, who has just undergone surgery on his toe, also thinks the rest of the Open class runners will get much closer to the top-four works bikes and Bradley Smith, who is racing an M1 just one year further down the development road than Espargaro’s.

“I believe all of the Opens can still get much closer to the group at the front, with each team and rider obviously establishing their own pace. In our case, although without doubt it will not be easy, I think we can fight for the podium at many circuits. We have to rack up loads of points this year because I am aiming to end the season inside the top six of the championship,” said the Spaniard.

“We are going well in terms of pace, as we demonstrated in Qatar. We will see what happens. One would not imagine things to be ‘as easy’ as they were at Losail, but on Saturday we will try and fight for a first or second row starting position and then in the race see whether we can fight for the podium.”