Jake Dixon was involved in a race-long duel for 2^nd place at the Australian Grand Prix and finished less than a second off a podium place, while Filip Salac withdrew from the event on Saturday due to injury.

The schedule was pushed back one hour on Sunday due to the high gusts of wind around the Philip Island Circuit. Despite the blustery conditions, the 23-lap Moto2 race went ahead at its new start time of 13.15.

Jake Dixon was the sole Elf Marc VDS Racing Team representative in today’s race after Filip Salac withdrew from the event on Saturday due to tweaking his right shoulder the previous day. The Czech rider will now have further checks to assess whether he can ride next weekend in Malaysia.

Even if the weather wasn’t ideal, a total of 37,192 fans came through the turnstiles on Sunday to watch the Australian Grand Prix.

Jake Dixon, 5^th

Jake started well from 4^th on the grid and was soon involved in a seven-rider fight for 2^nd place as Senna Agius escaped at the front.

In a hectic fight, the Briton was as high as 4^th and pushing to pass Diogo Moreira for 3^rd on the final lap. Even if Dani Holgado pipped him to the line, Jake fought to the very end and finished just 0.7s back of 2^nd place.

This result sees Jake maintain 5^th place in the championship standings with 190 points.

“A good day here in Australia. It was a crazy race today to be fair. There was a big group of us and the moves were coming thick and fast. I just did the absolute maximum that I could do today. Unfortunately, I got pipped to the line and finished fifth instead of fourth. That was slightly frustrating but I did everything I could possibly do. I just fell a bit short in a couple of areas which really hindered me. I’m really happy. This was another solid result and now we’ll go on to Malaysia and see what we can do there.”