Britain's Jake Dixon was back at the sharp end on Friday, finishing an impressive ninth on the opening day of the Moto2 test in Qatar.

After a long and painful winter recovering from the potentially career-ending wrist injury sustained in Valencia, an emotional Dixon was feeling ‘comfortable and confident’ aboard his Petronas Kalex.

Despite the obvious pain and completing just 12 laps of the demanding 5.4km layout, he put himself and his wrist back in the mix and inside the top-10 on the opening day of testing action for the mid-weight class with a fastest time of 1’59.916.

“It’s good to be back!” the Brit exclaimed, speaking trackside at Losail after the first day’s three sessions. “Obviously I missed the last three rounds, so it’s great to be back here but it’s been a long hard winter - Sarah has had to suffer and obviously put up with me!

“It was actually really emotional this morning for me to go out, after being told from the doctor, ‘you might never ever ride again, with your wrist being so bad’, it really hits home. To be where I am now, after only 10 weeks of recovery - because I had a long time with wires in it, and then not being able to move when the wires came out - it was on the 4th of January I was able to move it again.

"I want to say a massive thank you to my physio, because obviously he’s got me to where I am, working hard every single day, and obviously my trainer as well, to get the strength we could, in the short amount of time that we did.

“I’ve been managing it today and it’s been super painful but I’m hoping that the next few days won’t be so bad. We’ll keep it to a minimum and hopefully we can recover in between the rounds and see what we can do.

“I broke three different bones in my wrist” Dixon explained, “and had a dislocation, plus one of the bones spun 90 degrees, oh and I tore all my ligaments. I snapped my ligament that is between the scaphoid and the bone next to it. So [my surgeon] had to repair all that, so it wasn’t just the break, it was ligaments that were destroyed. I can’t tell you how painful it was but it was big!

“When the doctor pulls you to one side and says to you ‘look, it’s not just a five minute job, it’s gonna be a long time’. He said after the surgery, he was really happy with how everything went. He’d also released the nerve that I damaged in my hand and I couldn’t feel half my hand until about a month ago, so I’m really, really happy and super grateful.

"There’s many people that I can thank, obviously my wife, everyone who’s got me to where I am now. There was a tear in my eye when I came in because obviously this is my job and this is what I love to do and it just really hit home to be here now.”

Dixon puts a lot of emphasis on his wife, Sarah, and his family’s support for getting him back on track so quickly. “It’s all about the people around you” said the 25 year-old.

“If you don’t have good people, it would make it a lot more difficult but luckily enough, I have a great family, and obviously a great wife and great people around me, physios, trainers, surgeons, everyone that’s kept me high, in trying to get back to where I need to be.

“I was panicking before I left the flight on Monday, that I didn’t know if I’d done enough, I still haven’t got anywhere near the movement that I need. My physio said, ‘look for 10 weeks, the movement you have is beyond what you should have, you’ve done everything and more’ to get where I am.

"He said it’s six to 12 months realistically for the injury, so I’m super happy. I don’t want to drone on. I’m just gonna get on with it and just do what I can do.

Discussing the first day back on track, an upbeat Dixon said: "Do you know what is funny? This is how much of a great team I’ve got, and this is not me just saying it because I ride for them.

"My boys worked so hard last year to give me the bike that I needed and unfortunately I never gave them the podium - hopefully I can soon give them that - but the work that we did, has made my life a lot easier now because my bike’s such a dream to ride! If it wasn’t for that, I wouldn’t be able to ride the pace that I’m riding at straight away.

"Even if it’s just four or five laps, I’m able to be fast, the bike’s a dream, so straight away I’m going fast and I’m comfortable, confident. I just want to keep chipping away, we’re not going to change anything with the bike. It’s my first time riding in five months on a big bike, and it’s just great to be back.”