Aleix Espargaro made his best-ever start to a MotoGP season with a podium in Saturday’s Qatar Sprint.

The 34-year-old, whose first full Mot🔯oGP campaign was in 2010, may have been outgunned off the line - and briefly dropped as low as fifth on lap 7 of 11 - but his Aprilia got strong𒆙er as the race went on.

The Spaniard passed world champions Marc Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia to move into third on the penultimate lap and closed to within 0.2s of B꧑rad Binder’s KTM at the finish. Race winner Jorge Martin was only 0.729s ahead.

Although Espargaro set the fourth best lap of the race, a 1m 52.255s, on lap 2 of 11, it was hisಞ 1m 52.762s on the final lap that caught the eye of his rivals ahead of Sunday’s full-♓length grand prix.

All other riders, including Martin, dropped into the 1m 53s on the last lap. Espargaro’s end-of-race charge prompted Marc Marquez to say the #41 looks like being favourite for the grand prix, if he can ♎repeat that form tomorrow.

“I’m happy, really, especially because I have a lot of fun,” Esparga🙈ro told MotoGP.com. “The bike was working really good. I had some doubts due to the conditions, because we didn't ride [in the dry] this weekend under the lights.

“So I didn’t know what to expect but the bike worked perfectly. I was very strong in the last🍷 part of the race. I needed some more laps to catch the two boys in front but I'm pleased with the result.”

While the Ducati GP24s had some chatter issues, and Binder’s KTM needed a bit more traction, Espargaro’s only ℱobvious weakn🔯ess was a lack of engine performance, leaving him vulnerable on the straights.

“It was clear during today’s race we need more power, especially for the starts and the long straights, to avoid them oꩲvertaking us,” Espargaro confirmed. “But tomorrow, in the long race, I think we cannot ride as aggressive as we did today and it looked like the pace we had was strong…”

Admitting he feels “confiden♎t” for Sunday, Espargaro added: “I enjoyed a lot today. It's very important to have fun with your bike and not to fight against the bike. So to start like this is a good sign.”

While Espargaro has been fast from his first laps of the year on the new aerodynamically advance🎀d 2024 machine, the other Aprilia riders have f♑elt less comfortable.

The next best RS-GP in the Sprint was team-🌳mate Maverick Vinale🌌s in ninth.