Jake Dixon qualified 14^th for the Italian GP on Saturday in a complicated Q2 session, while Filip Salac was 16^th.

The blistering hot conditions that have engulfed Italy over recent weeks were still present throughout a hot and sunny Saturday at the Mugello Circuit.

Elf Marc VDS Racing Team riders Jake Dixon and Filip Salac rode in extremely hot track temperatures of 53 degrees during the afternoon Q2 session.

The 9^th Moto2 race of the 2025 campaign will take place over 19 laps on Sunday and kicks off at 12.15 local time.

Jake Dixon, 14^th – 1’50.307

It was a positive start to the day for Jake, who set the 6^th fastest time in the morning FP2 session. He ended the 30 minutes just 0.16s back of pace setter Manuel Gonzalez.

The Briton then lost the front at Arrabiata 1 in the final moments of the session, but managed to save it and run off track before crashing at low speed in the gravel.

Q2 was a tricky session. While pushing for his fastest lap, Jake caught traffic and was impeded, which meant he was 14^th, even if only 0.5s off the pole time.

“That was a disaster. The situation at the end of the session was a bit of a joke. The riders involved should be penalised for impeding both Filip and myself at the beginning and end of our flying laps. Filip crashed because of it. And I’m 14^th on the grid because of it. It’s not on and something needs to be done. It’s unacceptable. We’re meant to be world class riders racing in Moto2 – not amateurs riding around. It’s going to make tomorrow’s race hard work. But we’ll keep fighting. Our rhythm has been good all weekend long so let’s get our head down in the race and see what we can do.”

Filip Salac, 16^th – 1’50.408

Fastest on Friday, Filip was 9^th in FP2 on Saturday morning. More importantly, he demonstrated strong rhythm over a 13-lap run by posting times in the mid-1’51s in the final minutes.

The 23-year old was confident of securing a place on the front row in Q2 and posted a promising time on his first run.

But the Czech rider’s second exit was complicated by traffic. Approaching riders at Turn 12, he collided with a bike ahead that was touring off the racing line, which prematurely ended Filip’s session.

“I have no words at all. I was working really hard all day long on my race pace. Already in the morning we were strong and I knew that qualifying on the front row was possible. But when I exited behind Jake, I caught up to him too quickly in the middle of the last corner and wasn’t able to make a fast lap. On the second outing some stupid riders were touring on the line and caused me to crash. What they were doing was really dangerous. I don’t have anything more to say as yesterday was the best start to a weekend so far this year. We’ll start tomorrow’s race in 16^th but I’m going to give absolutely everything to try and finish on the podium.”