Friday’s two Moto2 free practice sessions at the French MotoGP round were extremely positive for Jake Dixon who ended the day in control of the times with his best Friday result so far after dominating at the sharp end for a majority of both the 40-minute sessions.

The typically British, cold and changeable conditions proved to be a good hunting ground for Dixon, despite his lack of knowledge of the Bugatti Circuit on Kalex machinery.

Maintaining a consistently-high pace throughout the morning’s wet FP1, the 24-year-old finished fifth with a best time of 1’51.851, having sat as high as third mid-session.

An incident-packed FP2 saw red-flags brought out in the opening five minutes, after Luca Marini’s violent highside but Dixon lost no time in asserting his authority once the action resumed.

Returning his Petronas to the business end yet again for the majority of the drying session, he held the lead on multiple occasions before ending the day firmly in charge with his final 1’37.713 effort.

“It’s really great to start the weekend like this. It’s been tricky today because this morning was wet, then this afternoon the track was patchy and drying towards the end of the session," said Dixon.

“You had to be really careful because, like we’ve seen with [Luca] Marini, you could have a big crash. I really hope he’s alright. You needed to be precise with where you put the bike and I’m feeling good.

“We’ve worked on both wet and dry set-ups. I maybe felt like I struggled a little bit more with the wet than the dry, but we need to work on both. It’s the first time I’ve ridden here with the Kalex, so there’s still some work to do but hopefully we’ll be in a good position for qualifying tomorrow.”