Petrucci: We have to reset

Danilo Petrucci says he wants to hit the reset button following a frustrating pair of races after the summer break which has seen him slip off the pace of Ducati team-mate Andrea Dovizioso.

Petrucci had been challenging his fellow factory Ducati rider in the points standings over the summer break, but while Dovizioso has secured second place in Brno and a much-needed victory at the Red Bull Ring his team-mate’s form has dipped drastically.

After crashing out of qualifying in Austria, condemning him to a 12^th place start, Petrucci was caught up in the opening-lap scrapes including the incident which saw Cal Crutchlow crash out.

As a result, Petrucci felt he had to use his rear tyre life to get back in the fight but by mid-race distance he’d consumed his tyre performance leaving him restrained to ninth place to mark his worst result of the year.

Having lost touch with Dovizioso, who is now 36 points clear, Petrucci’s third place in the MotoGP standings is now under pressure from Alex Rins with just 12 points splitting the pair after the Austrian round.

With a week break before the British race at Silverstone, Petrucci duly wants to refocus his efforts to rediscover his purple patch of form between Le Mans and Montmelo when he secured a hat-trick of rostrums including his maiden MotoGP victory at Mugello.

“It was a complicated race: unfortunately, at the first turn I got bottled in and then after a couple of laps I was involved in Crutchlow’s crash,” Petrucci said. “I lost a lot of positions and had to get back up the field, pushing hard on the tyres and after half the race I didn’t have anything left to offer.

“Pity because this weekend was a missed opportunity, especially when I made a mistake in qualifying and this conditioned everything.

“I’m sorry for the team, who worked as hard as they could: now we have to press the reset button after these two races and look ahead positively to Silverstone.”

Petrucci will be hoping Silverstone remains a happy hunting ground for him and Ducati having claimed his maiden MotoGP podium at the British track in the soaking wet 2015 race. 

Dovizioso won the last British round in 2017 for Ducati with former team-mate Jorge Lorenzo claiming pole position last year before the round was cancelled.