British MotoGP star Scott Redding believes a top-six finish is a realistic goal at the Qatar season opener as he still has setup improvements to make that went begging on the last day of testing.

The Estrella Galicia Marc VDS rider, who will compete for the first time on the almost-works Honda RC213V, thinks he will only get faster as the weekend progresses as cut some more time to the leaders.

“In an ideal world we’d have got the last day of testing in Qatar done, rather than sitting in the box watching the rain, but it was the same for everyone. I was on a good level at the test and we had some changes to make on the final day that we knew would bring improvements but, unfortunately, we didn’t get the chance to test them because of the weather,’ said Redding.

“I’m feeling positive going into the Qatar race. I’m still learning with the Honda RC213V, so I’m only going to get faster and, when you look at how close the lap times were during the final test, I think a finish inside the top six or seven is a realistic goal for me this weekend.”