Pain factor 10: Jake Dixon (Honda) was already struggling after the warm-up

Ahead of the races in England, there was cautious optimism at Honda. The test at Donington Park at the end of June had gone well, and the previous weekend at Suzuka, Johnny Rea, Somkiat Chantra and Takumi Takahashi had won the prestigious eight-hour race on the Fireblade. And Jake Dixon was finally back for his home race.

The Englishman had suffered multiple, complex fractures to his left hand during tests at Phillip Island in late February; the 30-year-old was forced to cut short his comeback – following a lay-off of over three months – at Aragon in late May after the warm-up on Sunday morning. Dixon also sat out the races at Misano in mid-June.

The Honda works rider made it through the weekend at Donington and finished all three races – though only in the disappointing positions of 18th, 17th and 17th, and thus without scoring any points. Chantra finished even further back, and record champion Rea could not manage better than tenth place in the sprint either. It became clear once again: Honda is nowhere to be seen.

My arm felt completely numb.

Jake Dixon

Jake Dixon: “On a pain scale of 1 to 10, that was a 10”

“I’ve had better days, that’s for sure,” said a visibly exhausted Dixon during his meeting with SPEEDWEEK.com. “I felt sick after the warm-up; I reckon I pinched a nerve in my right arm – it felt completely numb. The pain was so severe that I was in tears before the Superpole race. On a pain scale of 1 to 10, that was a 10. That suggests it was a nerve, because nerve pain is absolutely dreadful. I’d had it once before last year in Moto2 in America, but not as badly. At the time, I thought it was a one-off, but now it’s back – and much worse. The doctors at the Clinica Mobile then helped me with medication so I could get through the day. The fact that the bike wasn’t easy to ride didn’t help. Five weeks have passed since Aragon; my hand is much better – that’s at least one positive aspect.”

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Dixon hates results like this

Physically out of shape, riding one of the weakest bikes on the grid: how does the seven-time GP winner cope with this? “I hate finishing races where I finished them,” Dixon emphasised. “The situation is rubbish, sooo bad. But that’s where we are, and that’s how it is. When I look at Jonathan’s results, I don’t think there’s much more in the package. Fortunately, he was able to start a bit further up the grid and got the most out of it in the midfield. But if you have to start at the back, you stay at the back. A few things have changed on the bike compared to last year – these mean we can’t perform as well as we did last year. The only good thing about the weekend was that England won their World Cup match; everything else was a disaster. I kept apologising to the fans for riding at the back of the field and being so slow. I’m trying to win them over with a friendly attitude, so that they’ll still be behind me when – hopefully – I’m riding further up the field soon.”