Jake Dixon’s ‘special’ first day at Silverstone saw the Brit take to his home track aboard a Petronas Yamaha MotoGP bike for the first time on Friday in preparation for the BritishGP.

His already impressive debut came with the added pressure of becoming teammate to Valentino Rossi, with the 25-year-old unsure if he would be able to sleep in the run up to the weekend.

“Last night I actually slept really well and hopefully tonight I will sleep even better so it’s been an incredible day,” Dixon said of his debut in the premier class.

“Incredible experience, and especially FP1 was a lot to take in. There was a lot of things going on and this afternoon was a lot more enjoyable because I was able to enjoy the speed of the bike, and be more in control of everything. It was a really, really special day for me and just can’t wait for tomorrow.”

“The speed was impressive,” he continued. “I would say also the grip of the tyres is incredible, the amount of lean angle you can put with the tyre, and how much grip the tyres have, is really nice.

“I’d say after the first couple of laps, then I started to enjoy it,” he admitted, “because everything was happening so fast. I said to the team, when I was riding, the front brake lever was a bit too far out for me but everything was happening so fast I couldn’t actually adjust the front brake lever until everything slowed down a bit and then I could start to adjust it. So, yeah, after two or three laps then I started to really enjoy it!

“It’s hard to describe to you guys just what it’s like unless you ride it, it’s just outstanding how fast things are. It’s abnormal. But the biggest thing for me was probably the throttle, the first sort of like zero to 40%, how different it is to a bike that I have been riding. The way that the electronics work on this bike. That for me was probably the biggest thing to get used to. The speed’s obviously fast and the tyres are great and the brakes are good but that’s thing that probably, I took most time to adapt to in session one.”

Having experience from both Superbikes - he was second to Leon Haslam in BSB’s 2018 title fight - and the Moto2 class from the past three seasons to draw on, Dixon is able to analyse the differences in a calm and measured approach as he makes the step with the Prototype machinery.

“It’s completely different,” he said simply, when comparing it to the Superbike. “The whole bike, how it handles, how rigid it is and if you make a slight input on the bike, it makes the biggest of differences.

“The good thing for me, I’m on an incredible package, being Yamaha, and the bike is really well set up. There’s a few things that hopefully I can improve in myself for tomorrow but also if we can make some slight adjustments in the way that the bike handles for me, I think we’ll make another big step. It’s how fast you adapt to things, I don’t think it takes so long, obviously the more days you do, the faster you get but I think, after five or six days of full riding, you really have an understanding on what the bike is like.

“I would say the speed of the actual bike coming from Moto2, adjusting obviously the whole speed thing to the MotoGP bike actually came relatively easy in the end. I thought it would take a little bit longer. I think understanding the tyres, also is taking some time but it’s normal. When there’s such a big lap, you can only do 30 laps in a day, rather than if you do a one-day test, you may make 100 laps. So I think for day one, to be this close, is not so bad you know, after 30 laps.

“It’s like anything, if you get in something fast like a car, it feels fast for the first couple of times but then your brain is a powerful thing, and is incredible what it can do and how it adjusts itself and honestly speaking, probably after four laps the speed felt normal. It felt nothing untoward, I started to then get down to some reasonable lap times and that’s probably the biggest thing, it probably taking up to like four laps but then your brain adjusts. Your brain figures everything out and obviously sleeping on it tonight, coming out tomorrow I’ll feel even better because I’ve slept on everything.

“Every session for me is about improving myself, and obviously the team will try to improve the bike and the things that I find are slightly hampering me at the minute of the way I ride. I think there’s obviously certain things that we can adjust but the biggest thing and the biggest difference will be me. I think on a night’s sleep will always be good to come out swinging for tomorrow - because generally whenever you sleep on something for the first time, and you get back on to it, you tend to find it’s a lot easier the next day.

“So just to keep improving every session I think is the main thing. I improved this afternoon 1.4 seconds on the same tyre, with the medium. I had a slight problem with the soft, but from what we see, some people are going, half-a-second, to a second faster with the soft, so it would be nice if we could do the same, whether we do or don’t, but as long as we keep improving every session will be good.”

Dixon is in experienced hands with the Petronas Yamaha team. His crew chief, Ramon Forcada has over three decades in GP racing, working with, amongst others, Jorge Lorenzo, Maverick Viñales and Franky Morbidelli.

“Ramon is an incredible guy, with a whole tonne of experience and I couldn’t possibly have someone better in my corner to teach me the ropes,” Dixon gushed. “He obviously spoke to me about the certain things, on how we need to keep temperature in the discs, don’t rollout of a lap, so the front tyre gets too cold. Just the usual things to go through. The team’s working great, Ramon and the guys, Andy and everyone’s incredible, and yeah I just can’t wait for tomorrow.”

The Brit also had another eager assistant on hand as he took to the track for the first time, in the form of friend and fellow Yamaha rider, Fabio Quartararo.

“Obviously, he says to me, come on, and I was definitely like not coming on because I was so slow on the first lap but there was so much to take in!” he explained while laughing.

“I opened the bike and went through the gearbox and before you knew it the wall was coming close at the end of the straight and I say, ‘now I need to brake’ but I brake really early and then I have to accelerate again. Everything was out, timing, everything because it’s such a different experience but everything is good now.

“I got passed by some very fast riders on the first few laps, one being Marc [Marquez] in session one, and he actually, he passed me then I think he made a slight mistake and he actually rolled the lap, looked behind him was like, just helped me for the rest of the lap so was nice for that.

“But, no there wasn’t anything that I would say I would go ‘oh my god I don’t know how they do that.’ I just think to myself, it’s just a matter of time and understanding of the bike and everything, in understanding the tyres. I think, given time, I would be able to run in the front pack of MotoGP but like anything it takes a lot of time.

“From all I know, is nothing to do to judge me on for next year,” he said in reference to the rumours circulating that this could be a trial for next year’s vacant seat.

“This is purely and simply just a wildcard ride. The team has a lot of experience to know about a lot of things, so they wouldn’t just obviously judge me over one weekend because, like you say, it wouldn’t be fair.

“In this sport, sometimes some people take longer to adapt than others. I feel that I can adapt quite fast, but how fast I don’t know. I don’t know if it’s going to put me in a good position for the future or not but I’m not too focused on that, Frankie [Carchedi, Dixon’s personal manager and Joan Mir’s crew chief] deals with the rest of that. I’m here to do a good job. My best job I can possibly do and that’s all I can do really.”