Jake Dixon “annoyed” by “dangerous” blue flag situation in COTA Moto2 win

Jack Dixon admits he was “a bit annoyed” when lapped riders in the Moto2 Americas Grand Prix failed to follow blue flag protocols, leading to a “dangerous” situation.

The Moto2 race at the Circuit of the Americas was run on a wet track last Sunday, with Dixon dominating from pole for his second win of the season.

Several riders elected to fit slick tyres for the start, but instantly dropped to the back of the field, with five competitors ultimately taking the chequered flag a lap down.

At one stage, Marc VDS rider Dixon had to navigate his way through the lapped traffic, who he says weren’t following blue flag protocols signalling for them to move out of the way.

“Honestly, I was a little bit annoyed about that because when the blue flag is out you move,” he told TNT Sports.

“But they just didn’t move. And I understand you’re on slicks and you’re trying to stick to the line.

“But you see me coming and they still stay on the line, so it’s quite dangerous because I thought they would move.

“But it is what it is, you just have to try to move past that. I know they’re trying to do their race and I understand that as well.

“But it’s super difficult to try and get back into the flow, and I saw Tony [Arbolino] kept trying to up the pace, so I just kept trying to respond as much as I could without trying to take too much risk.

“And I felt like I managed that well, but I really didn’t have much more than I was doing out front.”

Dixon now leads the championship for the first time following his first back-to-back victories in his career since the 2018 British Superbike season.

It comes after injury early last year forced him out of the opening two rounds, with Dixon not scoring points until the sixth round of the 2024 campaign.

Reflecting on his Americas GP win, an emotional Dixon said: “I can’t believe it. I’ve always wanted to do back-to-back [wins], but you never know if it’s possible.

“And obviously in those conditions it’s never a certainty. What a difficult race. From lap one I didn’t feel I had good grip, but then I stuck with it, tried to do the best I could do, raced myself.

“Me and my team have been saying and all my friends and all the people who support me, my group, just said ‘race your race and do your thing’. So, it’s a massive credit to them.

“I just kept telling myself to ‘stay focused, you’ve done this all your life, you do this on the minibike track, you do this in training. This is what you’ve worked so hard towards’.

“I’m just so grateful to be where I am. I know how difficult it was last year and I really appreciate the times like this because I know how hard they are and how rare they are, and I’m really cherishing these moments.

“It’s a massive thank you to the Marc VDS team.”