Vierge and Dixon hard at work on day one of AustrianGP

PETRONAS Sprinta Racing’s Xavi Vierge and Jake Dixon end Moto2 Free Practice at Spielberg 15th and 18th respectively

The second of two back-to-back events at Spielberg began today for PETRONAS Sprinta Racing’s Moto2 riders Xavi Vierge and Jake Dixon, who ended a tight AustrianGP opening day 15th and 18th respectively.

Vierge had a strong start to FP1, sitting fourth on the timing screens at the outset of the session. The Spaniard stayed within the top-14 for the majority of the session, but ended it in 15th – with a 1min 29.457secs time. It was a steady start to FP2 for Xavi, as the track continued to dry after an earlier downpour. He improved later on in the session, setting a 1min 29.923secs lap, however his time from the morning put him 15th overall – only 0.570secs shy of the top.

Team-mate Dixon set his fastest lap of FP1 early on in the session, posting a time of 1min 29.522secs. The Brit opted not to set a flying lap in the second half of FP1 and ended the morning 17th. Jake had a strong start to FP2, posting the second fastest time early on and staying inside of the top-14 throughout. He was also unable to improve upon his morning time, ending FP2 13th and placing 18th in the combined times, where riders were separated by only the tiniest of margins.

Free Practice 3 will get underway for Vierge and Dixon at 10.55am local time (4.55pm MYT), with the first of the two Moto2 Qualifying sessions due to start at 3.10pm local time (9.10pm MYT).

“We made a small change to the bike for FP1 this morning, based on data from last weekend. It was not so bad and we were quite fast, but we were just missing one or two tenths – which would have put us inside the top-ten. It wasn’t a bad FP1 though and we were only half a second from the fastest time. We made some more changes for FP2, to try to make a step forward, but I think we went in the wrong direction. We were missing some pace. Now we need to look at the data from both sessions, to make sure we go in the correct way tomorrow, because we know we have the potential. We need to improve the feeling, do a good lap time in FP3 – to go directly to Q2 – and then fight for the first two or three rows.” – Xavi Vierge, 15th (1’29.457)

“It wasn’t bad today and we were able to try a lot of things. With it being the second weekend here, it’s always good to compare everything. In FP2 I tried the new tyre and I didn’t gel with it, it’s something we could do with making some improvements with. This afternoon the rain before our session had cleaned the rubber off the track, which wasn’t ideal, but we’ve got some data to go through tonight and see if we can make a slight improvement. We only need one or two tenths a lap, to put us in the battle for tenth to fifth. I think that will be a good result for us at the moment.” – Jake Dixon, 18th (1’29.522)