Brits get ready to fight back
To finish first, first you must finish
It’s an old cliché but one that rings true right now for Sam Lowes and Jake Dixon who know they can’t make any errors this weekend.
The British duo have been amongst the fastest riders in this year’s Moto2 World Championship with an impressive haul of two podiums, one pole position and five front row starts between them. Yet a combination of rotten luck and key mistakes have seriously dented their early title challenge and meant there’s been scant reward for their obvious speed.
Lowes goes into this weekend’s French GP desperate to turn his season around after three successive DNFs dumped him 65-points adrift of leader Celestino Vietti.
Two of those non-finishes were no fault of Lowes, after Somkiat Chantra torpedoed him out on lap one in Austin and he was then one of several high-profile casualties of the rain drama in Portimao.
Lowes said: “The momentum is not with me right now but I’m riding well.”
Dixon’s season has been a story of blown opportunities after he crashed out of podiums in both Indonesia and Portugal and failed to finish after dominating practice in Jerez.
Perhaps this weekend’s race in France presents a golden chance to steer their season back on track. A famous 1-2 looked on the cards in 2020 when Dixon led Lowes with just four laps remaining after the former suffered late heartache to crash out.
Aside from the speed demonstrated by Lowes and Dixon in 2022, one feelgood factor for British fans has been the emergence of teen rookie Scott Ogden in Moto3.
Ogden has scored points in his last three races and while a hard-fought 12th place might have gone under the radar, its significance wasn’t missed inside the paddock. Ogden was top Honda rider at Jerez and beat the likes of big pre-season favourite Dennis Foggia and Andrea Migno.
The 18-year-old said: “You always want more, the next target is top 10.”