Jake Dixon has urged some caution on whether his performance during this weekend’s British MotoGP should have a direct bearing on his future in the sport as he prepares to make his premier class debut at Silverstone.
The Briton has received a surprise one-off outing with the Petronas SRT Yamaha team for his home event, taking the seat occupied most recently by Cal Crutchlow, who in turn was deputising for the injured Franco Morbidelli.
The move was made possible by his association with the Petronas Sprinta Racing team in Moto2, even if the unorthodox release to compete in MotoGP is a reflection of his tough campaign in the intermediate class.
Indeed, with Petronas SRT confirming it won’t compete in Moto2 and Moto3 next season - as part of an entire rebrand that will be focused on MotoGP only - Dixon recognises this opportunity comes at a pivotal moment in his career.
However, he says he wants to enjoy the chance and give a good account of himself around a familiar circuit, albeit on an unfamiliar bike.
"From all I know this is purely and simply a 'wild-card' ride, and look, the team have a lot of experience and they wouldn't just judge me over one weekend because it wouldn't be fair.
"I feel that I can adapt quite fast. I don't know if it's going to put me in a good position for the future or not, but I'm not too focussed on that. Frankie [Carchedi, manager] deals with the rest of that. I'm here to do the best job I can possibly do and that's all I can do really.
"I think given enough time I would be able to run in the front pack of MotoGP, but like anything it takes a lot of time."
What is it like to ride a MotoGP bike for the first time?
It’s certainly eye-opening for any rider to throw a leg over a MotoGP bike for the first time, let alone on home soil right in the middle of the season but Dixon kept his nose clean en route to a time in FP2 3.3secs off pace-setter Fabio Quartararo.
Admitting to be overwhelmed initially, he nonetheless feels that with a bit of ‘time and understanding’ he would feel at home in MotoGP.
“Everything was happening so fast at first. I couldn’t even adjust the front brake lever until everything slowed down a bit! But after 2-3 laps I started to really enjoy it.
"I got passed by some very fast riders on the first few laps, one being Marc Marquez. He passed me then I think he made a slight mistake and he actually rolled the lap, looked behind and just helped me for the rest of the lap.
“So it was nice for that, but there was nothing I would say that was 'oh my god how do they do that?' I just thought to myself it's just a matter of time and understanding the bike and tyres.
"But that's normal when it's such a big lap and you can only do 30 laps in a day compared with 100 laps at a one-day test. So I think for day one to be this close is not so bad, after 30 laps."
