Redding sets sights on Tech 3 duo for Argentina

The Briton finished his first race for the Pramac Ducati team in 10th, losing ground after being pushed wide at the first corner and having to run a leaner fuel mixture than in practice.

Redding was 24 seconds behind race winner Jorge Lorenzo at the chequered flag, a figure he only bettered once in 2015 in dry conditions, and six seconds behind the Tech 3 bike Pol Espargaro, the best of the satellite riders.

Asked by Motorsport.com if he was satisfied by the final distance to the leaders, Redding said: "It's not bad. Last year if I'd had that, we'd have been partying because we couldn't even get close to that!

"I think we made the best of a bad race. 10th place isn't bad after two crashes earlier in the weekend. It could have been worse, I could have crashed again or finished further down.

"I think I could have got the gap to be around Pol and Bradley [Smith], so that's the target for Argentina, to take it to those guys."

Elaborating on where he was losing out to the Tech 3 machines of Espargaro and Smith in Qatar, Redding added: "We had a bit of pace on the straights compared to the Yamaha.

"They have a little bit more agility, a bit more corner speed, normally I can recover that along the straights.

"But with the [leaner] mapping I couldn't do that, I couldn't recover – they had a little more pace on mid-to-exit of the turn, which is what I struggled with.

"I had [the pace] during the test, and it's something we need to improve in Argentina."