Elf Marc VDS Racing Team riders Jake Dixon and Filip Salac closed a fruitful Moto2 pre-season with optimism high after three days of official testing at the Circuito de Jerez-Angel Nieto in Spain

Three full dry days enabled Dixon and Salac to continue their impressive adaptation to the new Boscoscuro chassis, with the pair completing a mammoth 300 laps to help speed up the learning process ahead of round one in Thailand next weekend.

Both carried out extensive work on their race settings while also looking to improve all-important one-lap speed in time attack mode, which paid big dividends as Dixon led the Boscoscuro challenge.

With five days of winter testing done and dusted, the Elf Marc VDS Racing Team is now ready to embark on the longest season in MotoGP history, with a 22-round campaign starting in Buriram on March 2.

Jake Dixon: 1:40.179, 134 laps

Day one in Jerez showed how close the competition is going to be in this year’s Moto2 World Championship, with Dixon one of 20 riders to lap within a second of each other in cloudy and windy conditions.

Dixon’s growing confidence and experience with the Boscoscuro chassis was clear to see on day two, with the Briton lapping 1.5s faster than his opening day benchmark to finish seventh fastest.

The 29-year-old though saved his best for last and in the ninth and final session of the test he produced a rapid 1.40.179 that is half-a-second inside Aron Canet’s all-time lap record at the Andalusian track.

“Testing has gone well and now I’m looking forward to racing”

“The team and I have certainly been working hard and trying a lot of different settings with the bike to be as best prepared as we can be for Thailand next week. We’ve gathered so much information that my brain hurts now, and we just need to sit down together and analyse it all to put the best package together for the first race. I’m happy with how the test has gone and now I’m just looking forward to getting back to racing in Thailand. It will be cool to start the season in a different place for a change and I can’t wait to get going.”

Filip Salac: 1:40.746, 166 laps 

Salac was immediately up to speed on the opening day in Jerez to finish third fastest Boscoscuro on track and he ended proceedings less than 0.2s outside of the top 10.

The second day was one of constant improvement for the Czech rider as he put in crucial kilometres on worn Pirelli rubber before he set a best lap of 1:40.869 in the third and final session of the day.

On a final day spent working through a range of different race settings, the 23-year-old ended the test with his best time of 1.40.746 and a wealth of information collected in 166 productive laps.

“My race pace is fast and consistent”

“It was a good test here in Jerez because we were able to try a lot of different things with the new bike and I am feeling much more comfortable. I’m pleased with my race pace and also my consistency, but I never really put together a strong time attack. The one area I clearly need to work on when we get to Thailand next week is gaining some speed on new tyres.  We have collected a lot of data here and we have a clear understanding where we can improve. After these busy three days it is going to be important to get some rest and then be ready to be strong and competitive in Buriram.”