Britain's Jake Dixon has labelled the penalty that cost him his best-ever Moto2 finish as harsh as he believes he was unable to do anything about the incident in which he was involved.

Dixon returned to action at the Le Mans MotoGP round after his concussion at the Grand Prix of the Americas and he did so in impressive style, qualifying 11th and crossing the line today 16th.

But Dixon was then given a penalty for exceeding track limits and dropped one position to seventeenth.

“I am never happy to finish in this position and I think a 1.2 second penalty is harsh because I couldn’t do anything about the incident and I didn’t gain any time - in fact, it was the opposite," said Dixon.

"In the end I crossed the line sixteenth but with the penalty it’s seventeenth. I had a vibration on the front end from the first lap and I was struggling to get the bike stopped with a full tank.

"It improved and I got quicker as the tank got lighter, and I was pleased to set my best time on the last lap. We have work to do but it hasn’t been a bad weekend.”

Team-mate Xavi Cardelús was unable to make the finish in France after hurting his injured wrist when saving a crash on the first lap. The Andorran tried his best to stay on track but was eventually forced to retire.