There is contact between Jake Dixon and Darryn Binder at Silverstone at the end of the first lap – Dixon crashes into the gravel and calls for Binder to be banned
After his first Grand Prix win at Assen, Jake Dixon travelled to Silverstone for his home race with high hopes. But things did not go well for the Briton in the rainy qualifying session. First, the Aspar rider qualified eleventh
But on that fast lap, Dixon had crashed at the exit of the finish bend and slid across the finish line alongside the track. Late Saturday afternoon, that lap was cancelled. The reason given was “track limits”.
So Dixon started only 15th, but his home race was over after less than one lap. At the end of the first lap, he came into contact with Darryn Binder in the duel for 17th place in the finishing bend. Dixon flew into the gravel and was out.
Binder received a long-lap penalty for this situation and eventually finished 15th. Dixon was mightily upset with the South African after the race. “Honestly, it’s quite clear,” the Brit finds clear words on ‘TNT Sport’.
“Sometimes I don’t understand what this guy is doing. He clearly saw I was past him. Use your brain, I’m faster than you. I’m pulling us both further forward. But don’t ram me, because you ruined my championship.”
“You’re ruining everyone’s championship, you’re an absolute idiot. I’m raging! We did the hard work. I made the mistake. But he’s an absolute clown. I’m fed up with it.”
“A long-lap penalty? Lock him up! Lock him up for being stupid. He does it to everybody. How many times has he done it? I’m not exaggerating, he does it all the time. In Moto3 and now in Moto2. Just stupid.”
With that, Dixon is referring to the Moto3 race at Portimao in the autumn of 2021. It was the penultimate race of the season then. Pedro Acosta and Dennis Foggia were fighting for the world championship title. On the last lap, Binder collided with Foggia and knocked the Italian out of the race.
So Acosta was world champion. At the time, Brad Binder’s younger brother had drawn the ire of the Leopard team. Currently Binder is riding his first Moto2 season for the German IntactGP team after a MotoGP season.
“It wasn’t the best race today,” says Binder, commenting on the incident with Dixon: “I was struggling after the contact with Jake, which was a pure racing incident from my point of view. I didn’t get a chance to see him on the outside.”
“I don’t even know how he got there because that’s not the right place for an overtake. It was definitely not my intention to touch him. I can’t shake the feeling that I’ve been penalised for my past rather than this incident where I could have done absolutely nothing differently.”
As a result of the retirement, Dixon’s WRC deficit to Acosta and Tony Arbolino has grown to 52 and 50 points respectively. He remains third in the WRC. “I have nothing to lose now. I’m going to try to win as many races as possible,” Dixon looks ahead.
