Jake Dixon has described his long-awaited maiden Moto2 World Championship victory as an ‘amazing result’ after coming good on his vow to step onto the top step of the podium for the first time in the Moto2 Dutch TT at Assen.
The British rider came into the eighth race of the season as a cautious favourite to take the spoils after setting the pace on Friday, qualifying on the front row of the grid and demonstrating superior long run pace in practice.
However, the 2018 BSB runner-up was made to work hard for his success after a mistake while leading comfortably eight laps from home dropped him more than a second behind Ai Ogura.
Nevertheless, Dixon got his head down to reel off a series of rapid laps that pulled him onto the tail of the Japanese rider entering the penultimate lap. He proceeded to execute his pass into Turn 1, with Ogura’s challenge fading when he let off the brakes to avoid hitting the back of Dixon’s GasGas Aspar Kalex.
Marking a first Moto2 win in 72 starts, Dixon - now in his fifth season of Moto2 - couldn’t hide his emotion upon returning to parc ferme, the popularity of his success demonstrated by the variety of MotoGP and Moto3 waiting to congratulate him.
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“I cannot even put into words how I feel. I had a dream to be here on the top step and I cannot believe it. It’s taken me a while to get here but I have a great team behind me and a great family supporting me.
“An amazing result. I’m struggling for words. When I got into the lead, I believed I could win. It was all chips-in; it was crash or win and today I won.”
Capping off a successful run of three back-to-back races that also yielded a pair of third place finishes at Mugello and Sachsenring, the results lift Dixon to third in the overall standings, 43 points shy of series leader Tony Arbolino.
As well as being Dixon’s maiden Moto2 win, it also marks the Aspar team’s first victory in the intermediate class since Nico Terol’s win in the 2013 Valencia Moto2 finale.