Petrucci shakes off cold and fever for fastest time

Considering he was battling sickness and taming a machine whose agility he jokingly likened to “a truck”, Danilo Petrucci could be content with his day’s work on Friday at Misano, during which he posted the quickest MotoGP time of the day.

Petrucci was one of four Ducati GP17s to feature toward the top of the time sheets at some point through Friday, and cited a previous test here, conducted during the summer break, as one of the reasons behind his speed. At the close of the afternoon, he was a mere 0.005s quicker than Maverick Viñales.

The Italian had to battle a fever, that had him awake most of Thursday night, to do so, along with a bike which has, in his eyes, lost a degree of agility, due to its running of Ducati’s updated aerodynamic fairing. All in all, it was a fine start to his second home grand prix of the year.

“I was alone for the testing and my pace was quite good,” Petrucci said. “But when you are alone you never know where is the limit, but it was OK. There were 60 degrees on the ground. Today there is less temperature. I still don’t feel OK with the bike.

“I’m quite surprised about the first position, especially because at night I had cold and a fever. I don’t feel absolutely OK, but on the bike the situation is better. I’m positive for tomorrow but we have to solve some issues.”

Pressed on what these issues were, Petrucci continued: “The bike is very heavy. With the fairing it’s very heavy and when you go into one corner you have to think about the next corner immediately. You cannot correct the line and if you miss the line in one corner…

“For example, in the first three corners, if you brake too much at the first corner, you go wide in the second and third is the same. With this bike it’s difficult to correct the line with the new fairing.

“For sure, in the second part of the circuit in the long braking area and in acceleration and the fast corners and the last part of the track, we are more competitive with the new fairing. But in the change of direction the bike is like a truck. It’s very, very heavy to move.”

Like Barcelona and Silverstone, it appears the Ducati machinery is once again working well around a circuit that it has not always favoured. Petrucci explained this stemmed from how the machine is managing Michelin’s tyres over a race.

“We knew from the beginning of the year that we cannot make comparison to last year," he said. "For example, I think Barcelona was the most incredible race for us because last year me and Dovi arrived 40 and 43 seconds from the lead.

“This year Dovi won and I crashed two laps to go when I was fourth. Silverstone was the same – a very difficult track for Ducati and Dovi won again. Sincerely, we stayed here for testing.

“For sure it’s a lot of things. We are using the bike very differently. I think me, Dovi and Lorenzo are pushing each other. The limit, we put the limit every time further away. Dovi knows the bike very well.

“Me too for sure. Jorge is a great rider and is discovering the bike week-by-week. We spend a lot of effort during this winter – Ducati, first of all. I think we are using the tyre in a better way, especially Dovi.”