FIGHTING for a single World Championship point is something that I’m not used to – but I honestly love the whole challenge with a new team.

I’ve been sixth in the MotoGP world championship and stood on a podium, but I’m getting more fulfilment from what I’m doing this season than any of those special moments.

Do I want to be the sixth place guy or move on?

Of course it would be great and comfortable for a while, but I’m always looking for a new adventure and I’m certainly getting just that.

Honestly, this is what I wanted to do.

I wanted to be involved in a project right from the start developing a brand new KTM MotoGP bike.

I wanted to test not only my riding, but also technical skills.

We get our fulfilment from small things like the qualifying lap in Texas, finishing in front of Álvaro Bautista on the grid and taking our first world championship point in Argentina.

We don’t have any negatives because this season is all about gaining information and moving forward.

Of course you want to be battling for a place on the podium, but if you can’t, it’s better to be fighting with a group of guys for points while moving forward on and off the track.

Everybody in KTM wants to be right up with the top teams and riders and that’s inspiring in itself.

We know it will take time.

I’m both pleased and positive because I’ve not made any mistakes in the three races, finished them without a crash and getting the KTM across the line in the best way I can.

Two good races and a bad one in Texas which probably taught us more than the first two.

Lack of track time is our major problem.

That means lack of data and lack of knowledge because we are figuring things out as we go along.

Having the choice of three Michelin tyres front and rear this year is a real blessing for the safety but a headache for us.

This weekend is the perfect example with a sunny first day of two practice sessions and then a freezing cold day for final practice and qualifying.

It puts us behind with so many different tyre choices and perhaps leads us down the wrong path because we have no old data for reference and only two bikes out on track.

There are other manufacturers with six bikes on the grid and so me and teammate Pol Espargaro have to put a decent amount of laps on the different tyres.

It’s very tricky but the weekend of struggle and work is really fulfilling.

The effort that went into Argentina to get a point was tremendous and the same effort here but the point did not come.

Some weekends are just going to be like this.

Pre-season testing went by so quickly.

Then you turn up at a grand prix weekend where you have no previous data and you get 20/25 laps of practice if you are lucky.

The last two tracks in Argentina and Texas we had absolutely zero data.

In the opening round in Qatar, we had tested previously and it was great to get across the line in the team’s first grand prix as a factory team.

In Argentina we got our first points of the season and you could not have written a better story.

In Texas I qualified with a really good one-off lap, although we always knew Austin with its 20 corners was going to be difficult.

I was delighted with the lap, but knew I could not do them consistently in the race.

In both Qatar and Argentina the lap times were consistent, but here we struggled and that was the first negative of the opening three races.

Without negatives you don’t improve and you need the technical problems to point you in the direction of improving.

The guys in the team have been amazing and work so hard.

They have introduced little changes throughout the three weekends and we have gained our first points.

After those flyaway races we had the chance to get back to Austria and analyse all the data.

It is just a constant evolution of progression and we know we will have ups and downs.

But on the down days it’s important to finish the race to give the guys the data they need for the long haul.