Pata Yamaha team boss Paul Denning has set a target of top six for riders Alex Lowes and Michael Van Der Mark next season in a championship that will be stronger in 2017 than it is currently.

Denning believes that at the very top of the points table, the series is on the same level as MotoGP and his squad need to base their expectations on this year’s results - one podium for Sylvain Guintoli - but need to be looking at regular podium finishes.

“We’re looking forward to 2017 with a lot of optimism but optimism that’s tempered with the realism of how tough the Championship is and how much work we have to do to get to the top level. We would like to see both the R1’s with Michael and Alex consistently challenging with the top six group and pushing towards the podium right from the start of next season and targeting both riders to be in the top six of the Championship. It may not seem like a very exciting target but we have to base our goals from where we are now and that would be a significant step forward in terms of performance and consistency,” said Denning.

“The year was challenging in some respects, we’ve suffered with some unfortunate rider injuries that have curtailed our progress. As the bike started to make quite good progress, kind of a third into the season we got to a point where Sylvain was quite badly injured and Alex had broken his collarbone and we didn’t really have a rhythm to build the project. We hoped for better results, that much is clear but the level in the Championship now at the top is MotoGP level, in terms of what our main competitors are doing.”