Britain's Jake Dixon was able to push championship leader Luca Marini for Moto2 honours at the Red Bull Ring on Sunday and was only four-tenths off a seventh-placed finish.

The Petronas Sprinta rider took his best-ever result with eighth even after two crashes in Austria and crossed the line only nine seconds behind eventual winner Marco Bezzecchi on the sister bike to Marini.

I felt like we could have a good race today, my goal was to finish between tenth and 14th and I got eighth! It was nearly seventh because I nearly got [Luca] Marini on the last lap," said Dixon.

"I’m really happy with today, we’ve just got to keep working because in Moto2 it’s easy to be up and down. The team is working great and we’ve got such a great bond on my side of the garage.

They are more like mates in some ways than work colleagues and I just want to thank them so much for the hard work they’ve done after my two crashes this weekend.

"We’ve made some really good progress, so I can’t thank them enough. Overall I’m really happy and just want to thank Razlan and Johan for giving me the opportunity to do this."

Team boss Johan Stigefelt added: "I am so happy with Jake as well. Every practice we have been doing something a little different and now he has the confidence with the bike. We had a good race, where he was strong from the beginning.

"He had a good start, was fighting all race and wasn’t so far off seventh at the end. I am so thankful to everyone in the Moto2 team and to the riders for the great job and let’s continue this going forward."