Dixon back in the mix at Mandalika after tricky start to Friday
Jake Dixon shrugged off two crashes in FP1 to recover to 5th in the afternoon Practice session, while Filip Salac is seeking to rebuild his confidence from 21st.
The eye-catching Pertamina Mandalika Circuit hosts the sixth-ever Indonesian Grand Prix this weekend, with the beautiful facility on Lombok fielding two Moto2 sessions on Friday.
The afternoon conditions were among the most challenging of the year with Elf Marc VDS Racing Team riders Jake Dixon and Filip Salac riding in track temperatures of 58 degrees.
Both Jake and Filip will be back on track on Saturday with FP2 starting at 09:25 local time and qualifying getting underway at 13:40.
Jake Dixon, 5th – 1’33.313
It wasn’t an ideal start to Friday as Jake suffered two falls in FP1, the first coming at Turn 10, the second at Turn 16. He finished the session in 25th as a result.
But the Briton didn’t lose sight at the job at hand. He posted a consistent 13-lap run at the start of Practice, when he was able to post several laps in the 1’33s and 1’34s.
The 29-year old went on to lap just 0.3s off Manuel Gonzalez’s fastest time of the day in his second run to finish up 5th. Jake still feels there is more to come on Saturday.
“It’s been a good day in Indonesia. Well, it’s been a hectic day to be honest. Having two crashes in the first session is never the best way to start a weekend. We were a bit on the back foot at the start of the afternoon. But we soon got back into the rhythm and ended the day in P5. I’m pretty happy with how things went from this morning. There’s a little bit of work still to do. I have some things to improve with my riding as I believe I can extract a bit more from myself. There are also one or two things we need to improve with the setting to make me feel more comfortable. I’m confident we’ll be there in terms of rhythm in FP2 tomorrow morning and in qualifying I’m sure we’ll be on the front two rows.”
Filip Salac, 21st – 1’33.766
Filip also had a tricky start to the day as he endured a few mechanical niggles throughout FP1. That contributed to him finishing 21st.
The Czech rider admitted he is lacking confidence after some unfortunate incidents in recent rounds, which affected him during the afternoon.
Despite that, he wasn’t a million miles away in Practice. Even if he finished 21st, Filip was just 0.7s off the fastest time of the day and has one eye on recovering some of that confidence on Saturday.
“The first day in Indonesia is done and I feel so bad on the bike. In FP1 we lost a lot of the session due to a problem with the bike and some technical issue which destroyed the rear tyre. In the afternoon I just tried to get a bit of confidence back. But it was tough because it felt like something wasn’t to my liking. I have to admit I’m struggling with confidence at the moment because we’ve had so many unlucky issues in the last races. If you don’t believe that nothing will happen when you’re riding, then it becomes difficult to get fully in the zone. I’ll work hard tomorrow to build my confidence back up and I’m sure I’ll find it again soon.”