Petrucci finds “extra 1%” for surprise front row

Danilo Petrucci says his aim had only been the second row after having to go into Q1 during qualifying for the French round as he looks to profit from his front row start at Le Mans.

The Pramac Ducati rider gave a timely message to his Italian squad surrounding his future by graduating from Q1 and qualifying on the front row as top Ducati rider.

The Italian says small set-up tweaks in FP4 to improve his GP18’s balance made the vital breakthrough which he feels gave him the “extra 1%” to transform his single lap pace before qualifying.

“In MotoGP, especially this year, there are a lot of riders inside half a second or one second so you always have to find that extra 1% that you miss,” Petrucci said. “I think that I was at 99% and we always moved the balance of the bike from the front to the rear and sometimes it was too much on the front, sometimes on the rear, so we moved the bike during the session but very small and particular.

“In the end I think we changed the bike 100 times but only a few millimetres and I’ve found something good that I didn’t expect as the bike was very similar but I was watching my lap time going down and down.

“I was happy because I was not at my limit. I didn’t find the lap time and watching out for them. At the end I think I found some extra boost for doing a good lap time.”