Espargaro 'disappointed' to be fast on 2017 Aprilia return

Aleix Espargaro hopes Aprilia have taken a step closer to understanding their present problems and future direction after being 'immediately fast' on his return to the 2017 RS-GP during a private post-race test at Misano.

Following a pair of sixth places for Espargaro last season, including at the scene of this weekend's Aragon round, Aprilia is yet to finish higher than ninth this year.

"I was destroyed, I've never done five consecutive days in MotoGP. I don't recommend it to anybody!" Espargaro said of the Misano outing.

"But actually it was a good test, sincerely. We tried many things. We compared also with last season's bike because obviously we are really lost and we'll do a post-race test here again on Tuesday.

"I would like to do good results, but we have already lost the chance to do good things in the championship this year. So it's very important to give more information to compare with last season and see the weakness and the positive points, to work on the 2019 bike."

The Spaniard, who has been suffering from a lack of front-end confidence this season, revealed:

"I was immediately very fast with last year's bike and I was very disappointed [by that], but it's something we have to really analyse. We have another test here at a different track and after we will decide [the future direction].

"We tried a combination of the new bike, the old, some new parts also - different swingarms - because the feeling I have is that my position on the bike this year is wrong. The way I apply the forces into the bike is wrong. So we tried many things, we changed the geometry, the handlebars, the seat unit…

"We have to change a lot because we are in 18th place. So we need a big revolution [for 2019]."