‘I really feel in trouble, bike is unstable and shaking’ - Petrucci

Last year’s MotoGP race winner at Le Mans Danilo Petrucci got his weekend off to a less than ideal start as he finished last on combined times. 

With Sunday’s race expected to be wet, it’s sure to present Petrucci a chance of grabbing his best result for Tech 3 KTM yet, however, being close to three seconds off the pace in FP2 won’t be a pleasing sight. 

When summing up day-one Petrucci called it a ‘difficult day’, and that the bike’s behaviour has put him in ‘trouble’.

"It was a very, very difficult day. We tried to use a bike similar to the others but for my weight and size it was not possible, especially here where you need to brake hard. I really feel in trouble." said Petrucci. 

"The bike is shaking and really unstable. So, we had to go back to what we tried at the beginning of the season but it was really different. 

"We lost a day. Le Mans is a special track because you need to brake really hard but you need a lower centre of gravity to be more stable on braking and acceleration and today that was really difficult to manage. We will have to change the set-up quite a lot tomorrow."

Petrucci also talked about FP1 and although it was wet unlike the dry FP2 session we witnessed, he didn’t actually feel that great either as he finished 19th. 

The 30 year-old said: "This morning was not that wet. It was quite OK. Even if I didn’t feel so good on the bike in general it really sat on acceleration and had too much load in braking. 

"It’s quite difficult here. I always need a slightly different bike compared to the others. We saw in previous races we didn’t improve as we want so we went back. 

"But today we sincerely understood that I need a really different bike! We have to try again and build-up something very different in the set-up for me."