Bagnaia braces for "tough" Argentina race

Fresh off from a podium finish in the season opener in Qatar, the Aspar Mahindra rider believes the long straights in Argentina will pose a challenge for the team.

"We struggled a little at Termas last season because we didn't have a base set-up," he said ahead of the weekend.

"I liked the track but you need a perfect set-up to be fast there and after seeing the level in Qatar I guess it is going to be another tough weekend, working a lot.

"There is also a long straight at this track, where we will struggle, so we have to be on the lookout for a slipstream," he added.

Much of Losail's success was laid down to the new fairing used but the Italian insists, 'more' work is need on it to challenge the likes of Honda and KTM.

"We found the perfect set-up for Losail, now we have to find it for Argentina, because it was our perfect chassis that allowed us to fight at the front."

Teammate Jorge Martin, who struggled without the new fairing and eventually retired from the race, admitted to be losing to its rivals on the straights.

"We were losing too much to our rivals on the straights [in Qatar] but for this weekend we will have some important updates," said Martin.

"We have a new fairing, which as we saw at Losail was very beneficial to my team-mate Pecco.

"Hopefully I can get comfortable with the new fairing straight away and hopefully it helps us to be running at the front all weekend," the Spaniard added.