MotoGP Silverstone: Frustrated Dixon ‘didn’t have the same feeling’

Jake Dixon’s hopes of a home pole position disappeared in the Silverstone dust on Saturday after a turn-14 crash on the GasGas Aspar.

Dixon was flying across the weekend with the fastest times in both the first and third free practice sessions and a close second in FP2. His best lap, a 2’04.107 set in FP3, easily secured his place in the Q2 shootout and would have been enough for the front row if he’d been able to replicate it that afternoon.

A different feeling with his Kalex chassis and a second-lap crash as qualifying fired up, however, dented his progression leaving the Brit with a 2’04.505 lap - four-tenths off the eventual pole set by Augusto Fernandez - and frustrated with sixth position but confident of a strong showing in Sunday’s 18-lap race from the second row.

“It wasn’t easy, I crashed at the beginning of qualifying because I didn’t have the same feeling as in the morning,” Dixon explained from the Silverstone paddock. “I was very angry and I got the bike up as soon as I could.

“I think that from that moment until the end I haven’t breathed: I wanted to get a good result.

“Getting a sixth position with the bike in these conditions is not bad at all. I’m already looking forward to seeing what we can do in the race.”