Alvaro Bautista heads intಌo round▨ three of the 2018 MotoGP season, at Austin this weekend, with just three points to his name.

Those points came from 13th place in the season-opeꦏning Qatar MotoGP with Bautista, like team-mate Karel Abraham, outside the top 15 in Argentina.

At the same time last season Bautista had scored 13-points, but he still seeking the right f🅷eeling from th🌼e 2017 Ducati.

"We know that once we fix a few small details there might not be a huge difference to the lap time but the position should i🧔m𝓡prove significantly," said the Spaniard.

"We head to the United States feeling very motivated for the last race before we return to Europe and we want to go back there in goo🍬d shape.

"It hasn't been the start to the season that we would have likꦑed, but we wඣill keep working non-stop in every session to improve the bike.

"Termas was difficu♔lt because of the weather but we f🌜ound some positive things that should prove useful in the future.”

Adding to Bautista's urgency will be that fellow GP17 riders Jack Miller and Tito Rabat are holding 6th and 11th in the world championship, whi📖le he is down in 17th.

Abraham is also﷽ playing catch-up relative to his 2017𒉰 form, with one point this season compared with 8 last season, again riding a two-year-old bike.

“This [COTA] is the last of a run of races outside Europe and it takes place at a difficult cಞircuit, which features a lot of high-speed direction🍌 changes, elevation changes and blind corners.

"I go there feeling eager to do a good job and to keep working hard to improve on the results we have had in the first couple 💝of races of the season.

"Since the race in Argentina I have stayed in Americ🌞a and competed in a Spartan Race last week, which was good fun and I also came away with a good 🐻result.”