Britain’s Jake Dixon took two points away from his first race with the Petronas Sprinta Moto2 team despite a late clash with Luca Marini in Qatar.

Dixon worked his way up from 20th after an early altercation which saw him go off track and then got his head down to move into the points but he then came together with Marini’s Sky VR46 machine.

Fortunately, the Italian wasn’t injured in the crash and Dixon has apologised for the incident on the final lap.

“It was difficult in the beginning. I nearly got taken out by another rider on the first lap and it ran me off the track, I lost a good two seconds from that,” said Dixon.

"As the race went on I became stronger and stronger. From eight laps in the bike started to feel better, the fuel tank started to get lighter and I just got faster, got into my rhythm.

The last five laps I was doing 1'59 lap times, comfortably within that in fact. I just need to figure out how to improve the first part of the race with a full fuel tank. On the last lap I didn’t realise Marini went down until we came in afterwards.

“I saw on the TV that me and him collided. First of all I want to apologise to him and his team because I didn’t intentionally try to hit him. As I committed to go I had to turn in and I had nowhere to go, so apologies to them and I hope that he’ll be all right.

“Overall I just want to thank Razlan Razali, Johan Stigefelt and all of the team for giving me the opportunity this year to be able to develop and get better as the season goes on.

“They have great belief in me and I have great belief in the whole team they’ve put around me. I think as a team we’ll only grow stronger and this is only the start of good things.”

Marini said: "Too bad for the crash on the last lap, I don't know exactly what happened. Fortunately, after a check at the medical center I’m OK."