Jake Dixon posted a solid day’s work in the Andalusian sunshine on Friday as he placed 9^th at the close of Moto2 action, while team-mate Filip Salac guaranteed an automatic place in Q2 with 13^th.

The historic Circuit de Jerez-Angel Nieto was the scene of the first day of the 2025 Spanish Grand Prix. Conditions were perfect on Friday, with ambient temperatures rising to 24 degrees during the afternoon Practice session.

Pirelli has brought its ‘super soft’ SCX tyre to a Moto2 round for the first time. This was another thing for riders to test and offered up plenty of extra grip.

Times were red hot at Jerez as a result, with the outright Moto2 lap record being shattered by 0.8s in FP1, the weekend’s first session.

Jake Dixon, 9^th – 1’40.818

Jake kicked off his Spanish Grand Prix with a consistent showing in FP1. He ended the 35 minutes with the 6^th fastest time, which was nearly 0.2s under the previous lap record.

The first half of Practice offered the chance to work on his rhythm for Sunday’s race. He posted a consistent 12-lap run, with 11 of those laps in the 1’41s.

The 29-year old was then able to dip into the 1’40s on his final run of the day, which put him 9^th and 0.6s off pace setter Manuel Gonzalez.

“It’s been a good day here in Jerez. We’ve done a lot of hard work in both sessions. I was quite consistent in Practice, and my times were quite competitive. But we need to understand how we can improve for tomorrow. There are a few places where I feel I can be a little bit faster and closer to the fastest guys with one or two small tweaks to set-up. But overall, it’s been positive. It’s a cool track. It’s great to see so many people here watching on a Friday. And we just need to keep working away at it and see what we can do tomorrow in qualifying.”

Filip Salac, 13^th – 1’41.016

Filip started the day well, running with his team-mate through long spells of FP1. He ended the 35-minute outing in 8^th, 0.8s off the fastest time.

Filip then suffered a crash at Turn 1 midway through the afternoon Practice session. Thankfully, the fall was at low speed and the Czech rider was unharmed.

Thanks to the fantastic work by his team, the 23-year old was back out for the final 10 minutes of Practice, when he gained an automatic Q2 spot with the 13^th fastest time.

“It was a good day today. I was feeling good with the bike from the first lap of FP1. The pace was quicker than expected even if the track was quite dirty and the tyre life wasn’t that long. In Practice the soft tyre was good for one lap, and the second was for two or three fast laps maximum. It was even harder to set a fast lap because everyone was trying to follow Jake and I. But in the end, we’re through to Q2. It’s the first time in a while that I’ve done that on a Friday. I had a little crash and want to say a big thanks to the team for repairing the bike so quickly. We still have a bit of work to do to improve my feeling with the bike. We did a change from the first to second outing in Practice and it wasn’t working how I wanted. We need to work for tomorrow, have good pace, and be ready for qualifying!”