Petronas Sprinta Racing’s Jake Dixon had a strong return to the Moto2 class despite difficult weather at the Misano World Circuit for Friday practice.

Heavy rain hit just as the morning’s session was due to begin but the wet conditions proved no issue for Dixon, who was quickly up at the sharp end in FP1. Despite a turn four crash on his final lap of the session, the Brit posted the fourth fastest time of the opening session thanks to a  1’50.623 on his 13th lap.

The Brit’s good form continued in FP2, where he returned to fourth in the standings early on, before opting to sit out of the deluge at the midpoint. Back out in the final minutes, he ended the afternoon on the edge of the top 10 with a 1’51.098 effort however, his morning time was enough for sixth overall.
 
“It was a difficult thing to jump back to the Moto2 bike because the feeling was very different,” Dixon admitted from Italy. “So we made some changes for this afternoon. The FP2 position wasn’t as good as in the morning session and, although we weren’t intending to because of the heavy rain, we went out with five minutes to go because all of sudden the times started to improve with the track drying.

“I’m glad we did because the bike was a lot better and I was able to improve my time in that session. I’m really happy with how day one has gone and hopefully we’ll have some dry time tomorrow so I can start to familiarise myself with my bike in those conditions too.”