Ellison aims for improvement at Jerez

PBM UK's James Ellison is hopeful of making a marked improvement at Jerez in Spain this week after a difficult return to the MotoGP arena in Qatar earlier this month.

Ellison finished 18th and last on the CRT Aprilia ART machine at the Losail International Circuit as he returned to MotoGP for the first time since 2006.

However, the 31-year-old is confident he can build on the Penrith-based team's debut this weekend in Spain, where Ellison expects an improvement.

"It was a tough weekend mentally in Qatar as I didn't gel with the bike as much as I was hoping until the race and I made two big mistakes which cost us 10 seconds in total," he said.

"Without those mistakes the result would have been far more promising so I have taken the positives out of it and will work really hard again at Jerez to try to carry on with the improvements we made in Qatar."

Ellison travelled to Spain early and is in relaxed mood ahead of Sunday's second round of the championship.

"I made the trip to Jerez a little early so I could get out on my bicycle in the Spanish hills around Madrid and also catch up with my wife's Spanish side of the family.

"It's been really good to see them and also great to get out on my bike without being soaked to the bone."

His crew chief, Phil Borley, said the progress made by the team in Qatar wasn't reflected in the result and remains upbeat over the potential of the team.

"We made a lot of progress in Qatar and although the result didn't reflect that, we did well to get a finish on the same lap as the leader and it's given us a lot more information to work with," he said.

"This is a long term project and we have to find our feet so all we need again this weekend is another solid performance from James and we will get more competitive as the season progresses."