Jake Dixon’s hopes of a fairytale finish with the Aspar Team turned into a nightmare on Sunday.

The Dover rider crashed out on the first lap of his final race for the Moto2 squad at the season-ending Solidarity Grand Prix in Barcelona, leaving hopes of a glorious departure in ruins.

Originally scheduled to take place in Valencia, the last event of the season was moved to northern Spain after the recent floods which cost more than 200 people their lives.

Before the race Dixon had spoken about making his swansong with the team one of his most memorable weekends, and he started with intent, qualifying well to secure a fourth-place slot on the grid with a time of 1min42.35sec - more than a second faster than his team-mate, Izan Guevara.

“I’m enjoying myself,” Dixon said after qualifying. “I’m riding well and the bike is going very well. We had a great qualifying, I have done everything alone today and I’m really happy for that.”

However at lights out he didn’t have a clean getaway and ran wide at turn one. Taking to the long lap penalty loop, Dixon tumbled down the order and as he tried to slice his way back through the field he tagged the back of Alonso Lopez before going into the path of Jorge Navarro - with both men ending up in the gravel.

“It is a shame to finish the way we have finished,” Dixon said. “We were doing a very good weekend until that point. It has been unfortunate, but these things happen.

“I want to give massive thanks to the team for their hard work this season.”

Dixon ends the year eighth in the championship, four places lower than in 2023. The 2025 campaign is scheduled to begin in Thailand on February 28-March 2.