Aspar's Aleix Espargaro believes the CR♚T machines have taken a 'huge step forward' after the opening round of the 2013 MotoGP World Championship in Qatar.

Espargaro, last year's inaugural CRT class winner, finished 11th♓ on his ART behind Ben Spies on the Pramac Racing Ducati and ahead of team-mate and nearest CRT challenger Randy de Puniet.

The Spanish rider was 49 seconds behind race winner Jorge Lo🅷renzo on the Factory Yamaha Racing YZR-M1, a result he hailed as 'quite an achievement' and one that is reflective of the progress made by the CRT teams.

Espargaro, who battled val🌃iantly to keep Spies behind him until the American used the superior speed of his Desmosedici to overtake at the end of the long straight at Losail, said: "Obviously we always want more, and we've bee🅷n left wanting more tonight.

"We were hoping to fight against some of the MotoGP riders♔.

"The thing that made that so tough was that we CRT riders lose a lot of distance on the straight and have to take risks on the corne👍rs," he added.

"I took ad🐲vantage of a mistake by Spies to pass him, then I pushed like crazy and I held on for a bit, but eventually he overtook me again at the end of the straight.

"Realistically, we have to be saꦅtisfied with our result," s💖aid Espargaro.

"We have every reason to be very happy, at a circuit as long as this, with a finish just 49 seconds behind t🍎he winner. It is quite an achievement.

"Clearly, we have taken a huge s꧙tep up from la🔯st season."

Espargaro iꦿs also pleased to have eliminated some of the chatter problems that he൲ faced last season.

"We could not have start﷽ed better here, and I am particularly pleased that we have solved 🅺a lot of our chattering problems.

"We leave here as leaders of th♒e CRT standings, so it was 'job done'."

𝓰His team-mate, Randy de Puniet, rued an airbox issue eight laps from the end that prevented him fr♔om challenging Espargaro for the top CRT spot.

"If on Thursday, after the first practice session, I had been told that I would end the weekend as well as I did🧔, then I would have been happy," he said.

"Throughout the𒅌 weekend, mainly yesterday, we improved our confidence 𝄹issues with the front end.

"Today I had a good feeling during the first three parts of the race, I could stick with my teammate Aleix and, a♛lthough he escaped slightly, I could reel him back in," added De Pꦡuniet.

"However, with eight laps to go I started having proble🦄ms with the left handers, as I just couldn't𒁃 turn into them.

"Later, with 🍒eight laps to go, I started to have chatter problems and lost almost two seconds per lap.

"It seemed🎃 like the air intake had come unstuck, which impeded me from tur🃏ning the bars and led to a lot of bouncing.

"It's a shame, as I could have stayed with🎃 Aleix throughout if not."