Jake Dixon struggled to fight back from an off-track excursion at the Moto2 Austria Grand Prix at the weekend.

Starting 20th on the grid, Dover’s Dixon had contact with another rider entering the turn two chicane for the first time, which forced him to run off track and rejoin at the back.

He fought until the end at the spectacular Red Bull Ring, however, and recovered seven places as he came home in 20th position.

But the 29-year-old, who saw his Elf Marc VDS Racing team-mate Filip Salac finish 11th, said: “It wasn’t a great weekend.

“There are not many positive things to say, unfortunately. It’s been a disaster.

“We had that incident on the first lap, which meant I was right at the back of the field. This wasn’t ideal and, from there, I just didn’t have the pace.

“I tried to recover and kept going until the end but I couldn’t make amazing progress.

“I don’t think I’ve finished in this place since 2019, so it’s a tough one to take.

“From now until Balaton Park, I want to try and do as much relaxing as possible because we need to reset a bit after this and try and come back refreshed to fight again.”

It means Dixon remains in fifth in the championship standings with 119 points.

The Moto2 season continues from Friday until Sunday in Hungary.