Tough debut for Alto Evolution.

The Australian pairing of Josh Brookes and Karl Muggeridge experienced a difficult start to their season with new team Alto Evolution Honda, but they both left Qatar with points secured during the second race at the desert track.

Race one was disappointing for both riders with Muggeridge being forced out of contention with a clutch problem and Brookes crashed out. However, both riders were undeterred and made up for the double DNF in race one. They battled hard with each other during race two and eventually both finished the race in the points, in 13th and 14th position respectively.

"After the crash in race one we thought the bike was OK, but on the start line the temperature went right up and to be honest I was worrying about how hot the engine was getting, and I thought I was going to have to pull in," said Brookes, "Once I got going the temperature did come down and I ended up having a battle with Karl. Every lap I was getting plus zero on my pit board but I managed to keep him behind me until the end."

Muggeridge lost a lot of track time with technical issue over the race weekend which did have a knock on effect as he explained, "We're losing out on power at the moment and so we're just having to run with what we've got. We've lost a lot of track time over the weekend, which hasn't made it easy, but I still feel that the bike is working well. We just need to get a bit more horsepower into the equation. We've got good potential with the chassis and electronics and we just need a bit more time to set it all up."

Sergio Bertocchi, Alto Evolution's Team Manager looked on the positives from the Qatarr weekend saying, "This is only the first weekend and with only little testing, we have done a good job to be in contention because the WSB class is very close. We will arrive in Phillip Island with the same bikes, but I feel that it will be a good track for the riders as both of them are Australian and know the circuit very well."

The team are hoping to pull in results in both races this weekend at their riders home circuit.