MotoGP: Danilo Petrucci, "Braked by the official bike"

Danilo Petrucci MotoGP 2016 Valencia Team Pramac Ducati – Danilo Petrucci analyzed his season with only one race remaining, the one that will take place on Sunday on the Ricardo Tormo track in Valencia. The rider from Terni of Team Pramac spoke in the usual Thursday debrief in the Pramac hospitality, a very interesting conversation emerged, he had the floor.

Danilo, there's only one race left until the end of the season, the official 2017 bike is up for grabs, a fight that sees you at an advantage over your teammate Scott Redding.

“I have a 16 point advantage in the special classification which sees us fighting with Scott (Redding, ed.) from Brno to have the only official bike available. I will have to do an intelligent race, even if I will try not to let myself be influenced, I want to finish the season well, a difficult season, which started with the injury to my right hand which caused me to miss the first four races. I would like to end the year with serenity, achieving the only remaining objective, scoring more points than Redding.”

Was there a moment when you thought the season could go in a different direction?

“Definitely the bike breaking in Assen. For the first time I had the feeling that I could win a race, that I could manage it, but then the bike broke. Subsequently I made a big mistake at the Sachsenring, a mistake due to too much enthusiasm. I was in the lead for 10 laps, I wanted to humiliate everyone that day, I was the only one who had chosen the hard front tyre, I committed the sin of presumption and I paid for it. These two races influenced the rest of the season. This last objective remains and I don't want to lose it, also because this year in the race Scott has only finished ahead of me twice, in Austria and Australia. We'll see the weather, it could rain during the race. In Sepang I wasn't strong in the wet, this year the tires have changed a lot and when it rains I can't always expect to win the race, there are many riders who go fast in the wet. In Sepang I would have had to risk too much to get further ahead.”

How much did the official bike objective influence from Brno onwards? Was it a "burden"?

“Obviously we can only win in particular conditions, currently in the dry it is impossible for us to win a race. The fact of comparing two riders from the same team doesn't make you think of anything else; I always tried not to think about it, but it wasn't easy, in Malaysia for example if I had decided to take a lot of risks I could have finished sixth, but I preferred to finish tenth rather than crash, given the high stakes. This internal struggle "slowed us down", this was a particular season, I missed the first four races, Scott broke the bike, which happened to me in Holland, where he managed to get on the podium, a podium that I haven't caught up yet, even though Sunday's race is still missing. I can say that this has been the toughest year in MotoGP and I also raced with the Ioda! (laughs, ed.).”

Still speaking about the internal struggle with Redding and how much the head can influence he added:

“Riding a motorbike is like an art, you need inspiration and when it's not there you can't go fast. He drives a lot unconsciously, this year I had confirmation of this in Aragon, when after falling (he had hit his head and had amnesia) I did six laps doing exactly everything with instinct. On a motorbike, the "head" is very important, if there is something that bothers you, it could be the pressure, a worm that wears you down inside, your performance can be affected."