Top 5 finish for Vierge, Dixon 14th at Austrian GP
PETRONAS Sprinta Racing scored a double points finish in Moto2 with Xavi Vierge finishing fifth, the best Moto2 result in the team’s history, and only just missing out on fourth place at the Red Bull Ring – Spielberg. Team-mate Jake Dixon took 14th in the shortened Austrian GP – after a multi-rider incident brought red flags out during the initial race.
A good getaway from Vierge saw him gain positions on the re-start of the Moto2 race, and it didn’t take long for the Spaniard to make his way into the top-ten. Further progress made during the early laps saw him soon fighting for fifth. An intense battle ensued with Sam Lowes, with the pair trading places over the course of several laps. Although Xavi had good pace, the battle with Lowes prevented him from closing the gap to the podium places. Able to insert some space between him and the Brit, Xavi started to chase down third position. Unfortunately there wasn’t enough laps left to achieve this and a mistake in the final corner of the final lap let Lowes back through, giving Vierge fifth at the chequered flag – his best result since joining the Malaysian squad. He goes into the next race eighth in the championship with 36 points.
Team-mate Dixon struggled at the race start and was unable to make his way through the field in the opening stages of the race. The Brit suffered the same fate in the race re-start and found himself unable to make the expected progress in the first few laps. As the race unfolded, Jake’s tyres came to him and he was able to start making progress through the field, lapping at a similar pace to those at the sharp end. Pushing hard aboard his Triumph-powered Kalex to the end, Jake crossed the line 14th and added two more points to his tally.
Next up for Xavi and Jake will be the Grand Prix of Styria, which is to be held again at the Red Bull Ring – Spielberg, next weekend (21-23 August).
Xavi Vierge:
We have been struggling a lot recently, but from the beginning of this weekend our race pace has felt a lot better. In qualifying we seem to have something strange happen where we can’t put the flying lap together, and also I crashed yesterday so the start position was not good. We tried some things in the Warm Up session this morning that made a difference and we tried them in the race also. At the start of the race the bike felt so good, so when it was red flagged I told the team this. I knew with a short race I needed to make a good start and we did this. Every lap I tried to make as many overtakes as I could. Towards the end of the race I started to have some issues with the front. I tried to keep the fourth position but I made a mistake going into the last corner. Despite this it was such a good race and we have made such a good step towards fighting for the podium. Thank you to my staff, Johan, Razlan and all the team for supporting me through the difficult times and let’s see what next weekend brings.
Jake Dixon:
It’s a bit frustrating. We seem to have an issue with the new tyre at the start of the races. I struggled a lot at this point. But then at mid-distance to the end of the race I’m as fast as everyone else again. Once we find that little bit at the beginning I think we can have a good result. 14th isn’t bad, it’s within our target, but of course we always want to be better than that. We’ve got another weekend here and I feel like we know what we need to do to improve for then. Just want to thank the team for all their hard work and support; hopefully we’ll have a better result next weekend.
