Petronas Sprinta Racing’s Jake Dixon will start Moto2’s StyrianGP from 21st after tyre issues sent the team the wrong way with bike set-up at Spielberg on Saturday.

Immediately bettering his Friday time as FP3 got underway, the Brit was unable to improve further during the 40-minute session, his 1’29.846 lap placing him 24th in the morning practice and 26th overall.

With riders separated by the finest of margins, Dixon put together a series of strong laps that saw him momentarily inside the top-four as Q1 unfolded. Completing the session a mere 0.129s shy of a Q2 place, his 1’29.565 effort was the seventh fastest placing him 21st for tomorrow’s 25-lap race.

“Yesterday we had a few problems, primarily with the front tyre, so it was difficult to understand how the bike was really feeling throughout FP1,” Dixon admitted from Austria on Saturday afternoon.

“Unfortunately, because of that, we went the wrong way with changes and have been on the back foot a bit since.

“We were still using this setup in FP3 and found that it wasn’t getting any better, so we went back to the FP1 setup in qualifying. We improved a bit, but the main thing is that we have a clear direction on what’s better, which is positive.

“The result isn’t where we need to be, but we’ve compared the data from here last year and we are now finding that direction we need to be going in. Hopefully, if tomorrow is dry, we can find the solution to be able to battle inside the top-ten, which is where we should be every weekend.

“I know that we have good form and good sensations with the bike in the wet, so if it does rain I think we’ll be fine. We need to get back to where we know we can be, but in this class it only takes a little bit to be a long way back.”