Espargaro matched his best finish of the season – and the best-ever for Aprilia in the premier class – last weekend with a strong run to sixth place in the Aragon Grand Prix.

It comes after the 28-year-old implored his bosses to dedicate more resources to its MotoGP project in future, or else consider quitting the class altogether.

Speaking after the Aragon race, which has helped Aprilia move clear of championship newcomer KTM in the manufacturers’ standings, Espargaro heaped praise on his RS-GP mount, describing it as having the best chassis he has ever ridden.

But, he also repeated calls for Aprilia to improve its engine in order to ensure it can fight further up the order more consistently in 2018.

“Every year I give my 100 percent, whatever I ride, but this project with Aprilia is something more for me,” stated Espargaro.

“It’s something personal and I will keep working very hard to put the bike on the podium.

“I don’t know if the RS-GP frame is the best on the grid, but at least it’s the best I ever ride. It suits a lot my riding style, going into the corners I can carry unbelievable speed.

“The engineers know the bike needs to lose some weight and improve the engine, because myself and Aprilia have an opportunity to fight for very important things next season.

“I think if we improve a little bit the engine next season will be very fun for us.”

"Frustrated" despite Aragon top-six

Espargaro described his Aragon performance as “one of my best races ever”, adding that Aprilia must now aim to be in position to capitalise on issues for its rivals in every race.

“I did a bad start but I recovered easy and I was in the group with the factory Yamahas, [Dani] Pedrosa and [Andrea] Dovizioso,” said the Spanish rider.

“I was waiting in the first part of the race because I thought the soft rear tyre guys would lose more ground at the end, but they didn’t, so I’m a little bit frustrated.

“It’s still difficult to fight for the podium with the Yamahas and Hondas, but every weekend we have to be very close behind – and when they have some problem, like today with Dovizioso, be in front of them.”

Additional reporting by Oriol Puigdemont