Jake Dixon (Honda HRC) has taken his first laps in the new year as an official MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship rider, and day by day, the British rider looks more comfortable in his new garage. He made the jump this offseason after competing in Moto2 for the last seven seasons. Complicating that slightly has been the lack of cooperation from the weather. First at Jerez, now at Portimao, rain saturated the track, preventing riders from pushing to the maximum and, in the case of Dixon, from finding the limits of his new Honda CBR1000RR-R SP.

WET WEATHER PROGRESS: “It was really, really productive, I'm really happy with how we finished the test with the wet bike”

Despite the grey clouds overhead, in the last two tests Dixon has been focused on the silver lining, stating that while there are elements of the dry package that are unknown, he and his team have taken advantage of all the rain to familiarise themselves with the wet-weather setup. It looks like the progress they made was substantial as on Day 2, Dixon placed third-fastest on the timesheets with a time of 2’00.111s, only outpaced by the pair of factory Ducati riders . Given the unpredictable weather of the first round of the season, Dixon and his Honda HRC squad may find themselves having done key work over their pair of days in Portimao.

On Dixon’s feelings from Portimao, he said: “It was good, it would have been nicer if the weather was kinder to us these last couple of days, but we decided to use one of our days to go out today and work on riding the bike in the rain, obviously, I hadn't done too many laps in the rain yet. It was really, really productive. I'm really happy with that we finished the test with the wet bike, so massive thank you to the team.

EVERY LAP COUNTS: “At the end, we just wanted to do as many laps as possible. It was pretty dark at the end, I think we needed headlights!”

The British rider has a substantial adaptation to make after so many years in Moto2 on a bike so different from the WorldSBK package. One of the key differences he and the team were focusing on across Day 2 at Portimao was his riding position. He got all he could out of the Portimao test as he was the last rider to retire to the boxes, trying to leave as many loose ends tied up as possible before he and his squad make the trip to Australia towards his 2026 debut.

On what he feels to have accomplished, and what he hopes to do at Phillip Island, Dixon said: “We didn't focus on one point in specific; we focused on several points comprising the overall balance of the bike, just trying to get me a bit more comfortable in my riding position. At the end, we just wanted to do as many laps as possible. It was pretty dark at the end; I think we needed headlights. At Philip Island, I want to keep doing what we're doing. We have a lot of work to do. I want to keep enjoying the process with the team and move forward with each race.”

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