Aleix Espargaro believe🐼s he can challenge for the top positions during today's qualifying session after finishing seventh on day-one of the Qatar MotoGP. 

Despite finishing outside the top five come the end of both Friday free practices, Espargaro felt the potential of his RS-GP was much higher after leading t🧸he way early on.

In fact, it wasn’t until the fina꧑l ten minꦓutes that Espargaro was removed from top spot during FP1. 

All in all it was an impressive day fo♌r Espargaro, w🐻ho looked especially competitive when it came to his long run pace. 

Espargaro added: "It was a positive day. I’m pleased because we started well. The bike is proving to be better than the one last year and I had the pote🍷ntial to finish much closer to t🀅he top. But it’s all good. 

"The 🌠important thing today was to finish in the 🐈top ten and we did that. 

"I feel fast and we’ll try to do well in qualifying tomorrow because here, with such a long straight, getting out f💟ront straight away is extremely important."

Espargaro could also have gone quicker had he not be⛎en slowed by team-mate Maverick Vinales during the closing stages of FP2.

Vinales decided to slow in-between corners whilst remaining on the racing line, therefore causing Espargaro to be visibly frustrated with the nine-🔯time MotoGP race winner. 

For Vinales, it was another tough day as heꩵ could only manage 15th. The former Yamaha rider cited a wrong ‘direction’ regarding the set-up of the bike as one of the reasons, although that has now become clearer heading into day-two. 

"I would have liked to have been farther forward but I’m not worried,” said Vinales. “It’s just that adapting to a new circuit for this new bike꧙ was complicated. 

"The references on the track changed completely and obviously we have not had tiಌme here to test many solutions like we were able to do during the winter tests. 

"We tried going in a dir♓ection which wasn’t the right one, but now it seems clear where we need to make changes. 

"We need to𓆉 keep working and improve in every session🥀, beginning already tomorrow."