Strong race from Vierge and Dixon sees best finishes of 6th and 8th

The second consecutive Moto2 race at Red Bull Ring – Spielberg proved to be an extremely good one for Xavi Vierge and Jake Dixon, with the pair achieving the best race results for PETRONAS Sprinta Racing in the Moto2 category. Vierge staged an impressive recovery from 19ths on the grid to finish sixth, while team-mate Dixon claimed his best Moto2 result in eighth at the Grand Prix of Styria.

It was a sensational start from Vierge, who managed to find his way through the field in the opening laps. The Spaniard soon found himself in the top-ten and ahead of his team-mate. Xavi was able to put in a series of good laps in eighth, to keep on the tail of those ahead in sixth and seventh. The strong form lasted for the duration of the race as Vierge continued to pick off riders in front of him. At the chequered flag Xavi was sixth, which moves him up to seventh in the championship standings.

Although Jake ended up going slightly wide in the opening corners, it was a good start from the Brit and he made up a couple of places on the first lap. Pushing hard aboard his Triumph-powered Kalex, Jake powered himself into the top-ten and was able to maintain a good pace in ninth. This pace continued to improve as each lap was completed and by the end of the race he had moved himself into eighth, Jake’s best Moto2 finish. He has also now moved up to 18thin the Moto2 World Standings.

The PETRONAS Sprinta Racing pair will be looking to continue this momentum when racing continues next month in Misano (11-13 September).

Xaxi Vierge:

I am so happy that we had such a good rhythm. All weekend we focused on the race pace but yesterday we struggled in qualifying, not making it out of Q1, and had to start from 19th today. We have made a good step forward here and we had such a good race. We can take plenty of positives from here and try to improve our qualifying performance. If we can start a bit closer to the front then I think we can fight for the top positions. Of course I want more but we need to focus on our results here. We started from a bad position but managed to finish with a good result. I have improved, the team has improved the bike and together we can do better in Misano. We know we have the speed.

Jake Dixon:

I felt like we could have a good race today, my goal was to finish between tenth and 14th and I got eighth! It was nearly seventh because I nearly got [Luca] Marini on the last lap. I’m really happy with today, we’ve just got to keep working because in Moto2 it’s easy to be up and down. The team is working great and we’ve got such a great bond on my side of the garage. They are more like mates in some ways than work colleagues and I just want to thank them so much for the hard work they’ve done after my two crashes this weekend. We’ve made some really good progress, so I can’t thank them enough. Overall I’m really happy and just want to thank Razlan and Johan for giving me the opportunity to do this.