Filip Salac ended the two sessions in 1^st and 5^th on day one of the Austrian Grand Prix at the spectacular Red Bull Ring, while Jake Dixon was 21^st.

An intense run of ten races in 14 weeks kicked off on Friday morning at 9:50 with Moto2’s first session taking place since before the summer break.

The Red Bull Ring, set in the southern Austrian Alps, was bathed in glorious sunshine throughout Friday with temperatures peaking at 31 degrees during the afternoon Practice session.

Moto2 was even tighter than usual around the 4.35km track on Friday with 1s covering the top 25 names on Friday afternoon.

Jake Dixon, 21^st – 1’34.009

Jake looked comfortable at the start of FP1, and immediately showed speed as he consistently lapped among the fastest names. He ended the session in 4^th, just 0.1s back of the quickest time.

The 29-year old and his team made some set-up changes for Practice, which didn’t quite go to plan. His session was also disrupted when he ran off track at Turn 4.

Despite his best efforts late on, Jake was unable to place higher than 21^st in the final minutes. But he and his team have a clear idea on a set-up direction for Saturday.

“It was a tricky day, and one of two halves. FP1 went well. It was nice to be back, riding the bike that I know well and going fast. But then in FP2 I don’t really know what happened. It’s hard to explain how we went from fourth to 21^st in the space of a couple of hours and we didn’t even match the time that we posted in the morning. We need to try and do better tomorrow and see what the rest of the weekend brings. I’m still confident we can have a good weekend overall as FP1 showed the potential we have.”

Filip Salac, 5^th – 1’33.439

After three weeks off his Elf Marc VDS Racing Team machine, Filip came flying out of the blocks in FP1 by setting a new outright lap record and topping the session by 0.08s.

The Czech rider had an eye on Sunday’s 23-lap race in the first half of Practice as he posted two longer runs. In both, Filip showed he could lap in the low 1’34s with used tyres.

The 23-year old then showcased his outright speed over a late 6-lap run, as he got within 0.14s of Manuel Gonzalez’s new all-time lap record.

“I’m happy after the first day. It looks like I had a good summer break. I felt really comfortable on the bike from the first lap of the first session. The team is doing a really good job. The bike’s in good shape. We just need to polish a few details. The speed over one lap is there and also the pace is not bad – better than usual. I can’t wait for tomorrow and we’ll see what the weather brings. But securing a spot on the front two rows will be the objective. Let’s try and achieve that.”