Zinia GasGas Aspar’s Jake Dixon was back on the podium on Sunday after a determined ride to third at the Red Bull Ring.

His third rostrum visit in as many races, Dixon’s celebrations did not come easy. After starting fourth, a false neutral left him dropping though the pack before a fightback from eighth in the second half saw him run on the edge of the podium in the closing laps. With the champagne in sight, the 26-year-old began to challenge and a late move at the final turn on reigning Moto3 Champion Pedro Acosta secured the spoils.
 
“It was such a crazy race, honestly!” Dixon said from Parc Fermé. "I was strong in the beginning, but then I hit a false neutral and I was struggling to keep my tyres in good shape from about lap eight. I tried some different maps because I was spinning too much, that’s why I was taking so long to come back to the group because I didn’t have anything. In corner four I couldn’t stop the bike!

“But my heart and determination was not going to let me finish fourth in that race.

“Then finally everyone else starts to come into a few problems and I'm able to get the maximum out of what I have underneath me. I can tell you I crashed several times trying to come back to the group. But like I say, I was never ever going to give up this podium when it was there. No matter who it is in front of me, I will always end up in front of them.

"So I give my absolute maximum. I tried one time failed and then tried a second time and squared it off into the last corner - I’d seen Dovi do it on Marquez a few years ago so I thought I’d try it myself and it was amazing. This is probably one of my worst tracks because I’m not a hard braker - but we are finishing third at not one of my best tracks, so super happy!

“Just want to thank the team for doing an awesome job as always, we struggled in FP2 on Friday to come back to a podium on Sunday. Good times and can't really do much more.”

While his fourth podium of the year and his third in a row is cause for celebration, it’s still not what the Brit had in mind this weekend.

“I wanted to win!” Dixon admitted with a smile. “I didn't want to be just on the podium, but I will take third position and we're building nicely for hopefully when my time comes on that top step!
 
“Everyone in this class is world class,” he continued on his competition. "There's not one rider that is rubbish, you know, from the top to the last, everybody is fast here. And this class is probably the hardest class here, everyone's on the same machinery bar a couple of people. So to battle here is hard because you know everyone has the same as you. It's all down to who can get the most out of their package and the Honda Team Asia boys got the best out of their package today and they rode amazing so congrats to them.

“This year I seem to be struggling a little bit on the brakes, because my bike is set a little bit more different,” he admitted. “But in the end I try everything and I think some tracks to come will be much more suited to my style and I'll be able to have a much better go at it!”