Jake Dixon began his return to Moto2 competition with a ninth-place finish in Friday’s free practice at Qatar.

Continuing to adapt his wrist to the forces requires to command his Petronas machine around the Losail layout, Dixon immediately placed him amongst the top times, in the opening minutes of the first free practice session with a succession of quick laps, his early 2’0.693 lap, placing him seventh at the end of FP1.

Starting FP2 with another set of quick laps, the Brit continued to impress as he circulated under the floodlights. His 1’59.546 best saw him ninth at the close of play, just half a second shy of countrymen Sam Lowes’ fastest and 0.2s off teammate Xavi Vierge.

Reflecting on the session, Dixon said “It’s been a bit of a strange day really, one of two halves.

“The afternoon was hot and dry, then this evening was warm but humid. We definitely had two different weather conditions today.

“I didn’t feel as good as I had done throughout the test but it is what it is. Tonight we’ll do some searching through the data to see what we can find there, but we’ll continue chipping away.

“My team-mate Xavi is a good gauge and he was faster than me in straight line speed, so it will be good to look at the data to understand why. It’s something we need to dig further into and then see what we can do tomorrow.”