MotoGP Mandalika: Dixon frustrated with podium crash - ‘I did everything identical’

Jake Dixon’s impressive weekend imploded during the Moto2 IndonesianGP as his Inde GasGas Aspar slid out of victory contention.

Having overcome a start which saw him lose his commanding pole position to run third in the opening laps, Dixon quickly regrouped. Bettering fellow Brit Sam Lowes for second position, he looked to have the pace to challenge leader Somkiat Chantra but it wasn’t to be.

A turn ten slide after losing the front of his Kalex on the fifth of the shortened 16-lap race saw him down and distraught to miss out on the race-leading potential he had showcased across the debut weekend at Mandalika.

“Not a bad start, I slotted into third and just thought ‘bide my time’,” Dixon reflected from the Aspar garage after the race. “As everyone could see I caught up to Sam and then I thought ‘Right now I’ll see if I have the pace to catch Chantra’ and I felt I would.

“Literally I broke in the same place as I did the lap before,” he explained, the frustration clear to see. “Everything the same on the data, I did everything identical to the lap before and for some reason I lost the front so I’m so annoyed right now!

“It’s twice now I’ve crashed in a front position and it’s so annoying.

“I wasn’t bothered about the rain. I knew what I had. It’s just one of them things, this is racing but I want to say sorry, first of all to the team because they’ve given me the bike to be able to win the race today and I’ve not been able to back it up.

“You have to finish races to get good results and I’m not finishing races!”