British rider Jake Dixon has secured a long-awaited maiden GP World Championship podium with a confident run to third place in a dramatic and incident-filled Moto2 race at Circuit of The Americas.
In a race of attrition that saw just 17 of the 30 starters reach the chequered flag and the erstwhile top three in the overall standings crash out of contention, Dixon kept his nose clean to clinch a first GP trophy in his 49th Moto2 start.
Indeed, it has been a long and at times arduous route to the upper echelons for Dixon since making the unconventional switch from BSB to GP’s intermediate category with a best finish of fourth at Aragon in 2020 his only top five result coming into the COTA weekend.
Nevertheless, Dixon has shown a significant upturn in form this season after returning to the GASGAS-branded Aspar team with which he made his Moto2 debut, securing his first pole position in Indonesia and showing podium pace before falling while running second.
However, on a day littered with high-profile incidents, Dixon held firm to finish third in Texas behind first-time winner Tony Arbolino (Marc VDS) and Ai Ogura (Honda Team Asia).
Elsewhere, Celestino Vietti - winner in Qatar and Argentina - retains the lead of the overall standings despite low-siding out of a comfortable lead early on, the Italian getting a dash of luck when closest rival Aron Canet proceeded to do exactly the same a few laps later.
Other fallers included Pedro Acosta, who was lucky to avoid harm as he slid back across the track almost into the path of Ogura, and Indonesia Moto2 winner Somkiat Chantra, who triggered a pile-up on the opening lap at the hairpin by tagging the back of Sam Lowes’ Kalex, before three more riders behind them tumbled in the ensuing melee.
However, the biggest heartache of the day belonged to home hero Cameron Beaubier, who having failed to make the most of a popular maiden pole position by running off track early on, had worked his way back up to what would have been a career-best fourth place finish, only to crash out with three corners remaining.
