First MotoGP fall, but Dixon 'in the mix' on day two

Jake Dixon puts an early Saturday fall behind him to be 'in the mix' with other riders during his second day on a MotoGP bike, at Silverstone.
Jake Dixon, British MotoGP, 28 August 2021
Jake Dixon, British MotoGP, 28 August 2021
© Gold and Goose

After dusting himself off from a first MotoGP fall, Jake Dixon lowered his best Silverstone lap time by 1.8s and mixed with the tail end of the premier-class grid on Saturday at the British MotoGP.

Facing a race against time to learn as much as possible about the Petronas Yamaha ahead of Sunday's grand prix, the Englishman - plucked by SRT from Moto2 to ride alongside Valentino Rossi this weekend - fell from the M1 early in the morning.

"It started as a difficult day because obviously crashing in FP3 wasn't ideal, but it was my own mistake and it's what happens when you don’t have too much time to learn!" Dixon said.

"You just try to push the limit and understand the tyres as soon as possible. But overall it was a really good day and it's just been a massive learning curve.

"An area that I need to improve on is the mid-part of braking. The initial point is actually the same as the others, Fabio and everyone. But during my mid-point I don’t brake hard enough, so I don’t decelerate enough.

"Basically that was all that happened in the fall. I braked late, didn't decelerate enough and then was trailing too much brake over the bumps and unfortunately went down.

"I needed to improve by leaning the bike more, which is a strange thing to say on a big bike, but the angle you can get with these tyres is incredible and if you put more angle you get more turning.

"Just minor areas but minor areas can make big differences, especially around here with the big sweeping corners. And when you do lean with this Yamaha the bike turns incredibly!"

Closing to within two-seconds of fastest rider in both final practice and qualifying, one aspect that Dixon can't control is the lack of straight-line speed from the 2019-based A-Spec machine.

Dixon sat bottom of the speed charts, 5km/h from next slowest Rossi (on the 2021 factory spec bike) and 16/km/h from the quickest Ducati in FP4. But with so much to learn in so few laps, time given away on the straights is not something Dixon has even considered.

"I've got too many other things to worry about rather than how much I'm losing on the straight!" he smiled. "Honestly, it's just a matter of taking everything in. Imagine saying to somebody, 'you've got 60 laps and within 60 laps you've got to be as fast as you can possibly be' against the guys that ride the bikes all the time. It's hard, you know.

"I've enjoyed it a lot! Obviously, I wish I was going to get more time on the bike and I wish I could be a full-time MotoGP rider. I don’t have that luxury but I feel like today I've done a really good job. I feel like I can pat myself on the back and say to be here and within 60 laps do a 2m 0.8s is not so bad!"

Dixon's qualifying time left him 21st and last (after the withdraw of Lorenzo Savadori), 0.478s from KTM race winner Miguel Oliveira and 0.6s from the next closest Yamaha of test rider Cal Crutchlow.

"I've no doubt given time and the right opportunity I'd be able to do a very good job with the big bikes and I'm not so far away around a two-minute lap."

Turning to Sunday's race, Dixon's is encouraged by his pace in FP4, when he began to challenge other riders on the timesheet and finished ahead of Luca Marini.

"As you saw in FP4, the pace is a lot slower and I was able to be in the mix with the other riders around me and for a long time I was in front of Cal and a couple of other riders.

"In the race it's obviously going to be difficult not to get too excited and start to spin the rear too much and overheat the rear, because I think that's a big thing on this bike.

"But I'm just going to try and stay with the group for as long as I possibly can and not use too much rear tyre. It's not that easy to just race with these guys after so few laps and not use too much tyre."

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