Aspar's Aleix Espargaro believes the CRT 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-m꧃ate and nearest CRT challenger Randy de Puniet.

The Spanish rid𒆙er was 49 seconds behind race winner Jorge Lorenzo 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 valiantly to keep Spies behind him until tဣhe 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 been left wanting more tonight.

"W🗹e 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🥃 corners," he added.

"I took advantage of a mistake by Spies to pass him, t🎃hen I pushed like crazy aඣnd I held on for a bit, but eventually he overtook me again at the end of the straight.

"Realistically, we have to be satisfied with♚ our res🤪ult," said Espargaro.

"We have every reason to be very happy, at a circuit as long as this, w📖ith a finish just 49 se🅷conds behind the winner. It is quite an achievement.

"Clearly, we have taken a huge step up from last season🎉."

Esꦺpargaro is also pleased to have eliminated some of the chatter problems that he faced last season.

"We could not have started better here, and I am particulꦐarly pleased that we have solved a lot of our chattering problems.

"W꧑e leave here as leaders of the CRT standings, so it was 'job done'."

His team-mate, Randy de Puniet, rued an airbꦇox issue eight laps from the end that prevented him from 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 the weekend, mainly yesterday, we imp♛roved our confidence issues with the front end.

"Today I had a good feeling during the first three parts of the race, I could stick withꦿ my teammate Aleix and, although he escaped slightly, I could reel him back in,🍎" added De Puniet.

"However, with eight laps to go I started having problems with ꦐthe left handers, as I just couldn't turn into them.

"Later, with eight laps to go, I started to have chatter problems an🐈d lost almost tꦡwo seconds per lap.

"It seemed like the air intake had come unstuck, which impeded me ⭕from🐈 turning the bars and led to a lot of bouncing.

"It's a shame, as I could hav🧸e stayed with Aleix throughout if not."