Jake Dixon left it late before scoring high in Friday’s FP2, placing his Petronas SRT sixth in the Valencia GP combined times.

Strong from the outset and sitting eighth early in the wet morning session, Dixon opted not to run a time attack due to a lack of feeling with his Kalex machine, ending FP1 21st. His afternoon action began in a similar vein, running at the edge of the top 20 before a lie charge him saw him rise into he top five and end the opening day of the final weekend, sixth overall.

“We generally have a good Friday, so I’m hoping that we now continue this into Saturday.,” Dixon said after FP2. “In the wet this morning everything felt so bad for some reason, I had zero grip and it was a really difficult session.

"I actually didn’t feel good on the bike all day, but I was still able to be fast at the end of FP2. We need to do some work overnight because I feel like we’re lacking some areas. It’s good to get day one out of the way though, after my crash here last year, because it’s been playing on my mind a bit today.

"I want to try to have a good Saturday, to be fast for qualifying, as I think if we can be on the front two rows then I should be able to have a really good race.”