Filip Salac started the Hungarian Grand Prix in fine fashion by finishing 2^nd in the afternoon Practice, while Jake Dixon found improvements in 12^th.

Friday was the first chance for Jake Dixon and Filip Salac to sample to the 4.0km Balaton Park Circuit aboard their Elf Marc VDS Racing Team machines.

Despite forecasts that suggested rain, conditions on Friday were sunny for the most part and dry, if not very windy in the afternoon. Track temperatures reached 39 degrees during Practice.

Moto2 was extremely competitive around the tight, 17-turn circuit in the afternoon with 0.7s covering the top 21 riders.

Jake Dixon, 12^th – 1’41.639

Jake set the 6^th fastest time on FP1 despite a small Turn 13 crash at the end of the session.

The 29-year old and his crew were seeking solutions for the problems he has had stopping the bike, and several tweaks to his setting aided his feeling on Friday afternoon.

A strong late run saw Jake climb to 12^th in Practice, just 0.4s back of pace setter Diogo Moreira. He was also the fastest rider in Sectors 1 and 3.

“It wasn’t a bad day here in Hungary. The circuit is good. I like it. I’m still trying to figure out the issue that we’ve had almost all year, which is the stopping of the bike. We’re still working on which direction to go in. There were a few positives today. We need to sit down this evening and analyse whether it was the correct direction to go in. I feel like it is and we need another step to be even closer to the front. Let’s keep chipping away and see what we can do this weekend. Anything is possible but we need to keep working.”

Filip Salac, 2^nd – 1’41.385

Having ridden a production bike here a few months ago, Filip was quickly on the pace in FP1 and set the 3^rd fastest time, 0.1s off Manuel Gonzalez’s quickest time.

Like all the Moto2 riders, consistency was a little lacking on Friday afternoon for Filip as he continued to learn the braking points around the track. The Czech rider still managed to post three laps in the 1’41s.

The 23-year old will be encouraged by the fact he set his fastest time of the day on the ninth lap of his second run to trail Moreira by just 0.1s.

“It was a good Friday here in Hungary. It was the first time here with the Moto2 bike. It’s a nice track and we did a good job with the team. Our pace in the morning was good. It wasn’t so easy for me to do the lap time this afternoon with the wind. Even still, we managed to get into Q2 and were second overall. Tomorrow the qualifying will be super important. It looks like there are a lot of overtaking spots out on track. But as soon as you do a mistake you lose more time than you can gain. Let’s see how we get on tomorrow but for sure I’ll give my all.”