Jake Dixon was a little disappointed to qualify 6^th for the Japanese Grand Prix but feels he has the speed to fight at the front on Sunday, while Filip Salac was 18^th.

Unusually high temperatures greeted Elf Marc VDS Racing Team riders Jake Dixon and Filip Salac on qualifying day at the Mobility Resort Motegi with track temperatures coming in at 45 degrees during Q2.

The Moto2 lap record has continually taken a beating this weekend, with the pace red hot at the front. The pole position time was a massive 1.8s quicker than the previous record from 2024.

The 17^th Moto2 race of 2025 will kick off at 12.15 local time on Sunday and will run over 19 laps.

Jake Dixon, 6^th – 1’48.218

Fastest in both of Friday’s sessions, Jake was immediately quick on Saturday morning and broke the lap record again to top the session by 0.27s.

The Briton also did two long runs in the session and was able to reel off a succession of fast times in the 1’48s, which bodes well for Sunday.

The 29-year old was able to improve on his personal best from the weekend by 0.1s in Q2, but was unable to be higher than 6^th, just 0.2s off Manuel Gonzalez’s pole time.

“I had a good day here at Motegi. I was strong this morning and showed that I had good rhythm when doing some longer runs. I could also go faster this afternoon. But everyone else seems to be able to go out and find a bit more time in qualifying than us. To be honest, we were expecting a bit more than sixth place on the grid. But we’ve definitely done our homework for the race. Tomorrow will be a new day and we’ll be fighting for that win in the race so I’m confident it’ll be all good.”

Filip Salac,18^th – 1’49.543

Having struggled with his engine brake setting through Friday, Filip and his crew worked tirelessly through FP2 to find a solution. After some changes toward the end of the 30-minute session, the Czech rider started to feel more comfortable and placed 15^th.

After ending Friday outside the top 14, the 23-year old had to pass through Q1 and did so by posting the 4^th fastest time, just 0.07s off 1^st.

But Filip had an unfortunate fall at Turn 10 in Q2. Even if he was able to rejoin the session, he didn’t have the same good feeling in the laps that followed and qualified 18^th.

“It was a difficult second day here in Japan. Finally at the end of Free Practice 2 we were able to find something that was working a bit better than yesterday and the first outing of the morning. I went through Q1 and the bike was quite OK. But in Q2 I had some issues when I was shifting gear and I crashed. When I restarted, I just wasn’t able to make good laps. It’s a shame. It seems as though something always happens to us in Q2 this year and we’ve been very unlucky with qualifying in general. But the race will be a long one tomorrow and we’ll see what we can do.”