A brilliant late lap put Jake Dixon 4^th in a red-hot Q2 session at Phillip Island on Saturday while Filip Salac had to withdraw from the weekend due to an injured right shoulder.

It was another blustery start to the day on Phillip Island as a morning shower left the track wet for the entirety of the morning FP2 session. But it soon dried and cleared with Q2 taking place under sunny skies and in ambient temperatures of 14 degrees.

Jake Dixon was the lone Elf Marc VDS Racing Team rider on track in qualifying after Filip Salac withdrew from the event due to a right shoulder issue. The Czech rider tweaked the joint during a moment in FP1 and will be assessed in hospital in Melbourne today to understand the extent of the injury.

With high winds forecast for Sunday morning, the race day schedule has been pushed back by one hour to avoid the worst of the gusts. The 23-lap Moto2 race will now kick off at 13.15 local time rather than 12.15.

Jake Dixon, 4^th – 1’29.993

It was a strong day for Jake from the off. In tricky conditions, he shrugged off a low-speed crash at Turn 10 in FP2 to return to the track and set the 6^th fastest time.

The Briton was fired up for Q2 but didn’t get a clean lap in during his first run and caught yellow flags on two of his flying laps.

Knowing he had to deliver on his final run, Jake posted a brilliant time that was just 0.17s off pole position for 4^th place.

For the second day in succession, the lap record had been shattered and Jake’s best time was under Friday’s best by 0.4s.

“It’s been a good day! This morning was so much fun in the wet conditions. The track was drying while we were on wet tyres and that was super nice. This afternoon it was dry. We got a good couple of laps in Q2, which were pretty solid. I’m pretty happy about how that went. There wasn’t much separating me from the front row, but I’m still confident we can fight for something in the race from row two. I can’t wait for tomorrow now to see what we can do. I’ll be looking to move forward in the early laps and then get stuck in to the battle up at the front.”