Dixon samples New Zealand car

Teams had a second chassis for the first time in Dubai, and the chance to shake it down meant New Zealand's squad, WSR, gave Dixon a run in both extra morning sessions.

"I was just learning the track, it's pretty dusty, so the more laps you do the better," said Dixon. "It's definitely a very different car from those I've ever driven. Normally you're looking for front-end grip, but with this it's all about traction. I was expecting it to be more powerful, but it was a lot of fun to drive."

"In the second session the car was pretty decent, then we made some changes and lost it again. But the team has got a good idea of what we need, so I'm pretty pleased actually."

Dixon said he would be happy to race the car when the series comes to America next year, and is eyeing the Laguna Seca round with interest.

"Tracks you know takes out half of the difficulty of the learning process about the car," he said.

"It would be nice to do a couple of more sessions here actually, but I'm going to leave it up to them [with Team New Zealand regular Matt Halliday] so they can get a good result this weekend. The whole point of doing this was looking ahead to maybe doing the races in America."