Petronas SRT’s Jake Dixon described his first day back at Spielberg as far from ‘the smoothest’ after mistakes saw him complete Friday’s Moto2 practice in 20th.

While the first half of FP1 saw Dixon put together a string of fast laps and set a 1’29.878 time that initially kept him inside the top-five, the Brit did not improve in the second half and ended the morning in 15th.

Opting to stay in the garage to analyse the conditions as FP2 unfolded, the 26-year-old was ultimately unable to improve upon his earlier time. His 1’29.953 lap sitting him 17th in the afternoon session and ending the day 20th overall.

“It felt good to jump back on the bike again,” Dixon said from Austria. “Although it wasn’t the smoothest of days that I could have possibly had,” he admitted.

“I’m glad to be back riding though. It’s only day one after five weeks off and anything can happen.

“I’m looking forward to getting going properly tomorrow and to hopefully see the continuation of progress that we’d been making.

“I have a lot of confidence in the team around me and I really feel like they believe in me, which can really help in this paddock. We did make a few mistakes today but it’s coming good and I’m ready for tomorrow.”