“Race of strategy” for Danilo Petrucci after off-trend tyre pick in UK WorldSBK Race 1

A choice of a harder tyre to most of the field led to a “race of strategy” for Danilo Petrucci in UK WorldSBK Race 1.

Petrucci and Nicolo Bulega were the only riders among the front runners to choose the SC0 rear tyre, with the rest, including eventual winner Toprak Razgatlioglu, choosing the SCX.

Bulega said after the race that he felt his choice was perhaps the wrong one, while Petrucci said it was difficult to manage battling with the other riders on the softer compound.

“Sincerely, this morning, the first qualifying tyre was good, I was thinking to improve with the second qualifying tyre, but the tyre was not the same as the first one so I didn’t improve,” Danilo Petrucci said.

“I started so back, but I knew my pace was good.

“Anyway, that’s been, let’s say, a race of strategy. Only me and Nicolo [Bulega] were with the SC0, and the other guys with the SCX.

“That tyre, the other guys had a lot of traction at the beginning, then they lost a bit, but it has been tough because, in some corners, they were losing and in some others not. It has been quite tough.

“But, at the moment it’s the maximum. I was hoping, sincerely, to be closer to the other two guys [Razgatlioglu and Bulega]; compared to the other races, yes, I’ve been closer, but still another race.

“Anyway, I’m happy, I scored a lot of points, I was able to avoid the first [turn] crash, I was already in front.”

Only 16 of the 24 riders finished in Race 1. Part of this was down to the multi-rider crash at turn one that Yari Montella received a long lap penalty for and which Alvaro Bautista labelled as “unlucky”.

But there were also several other crashes, with Petrucci saying that a lack of grip made crashing “easy”.

“It was difficult,” he said. “Sincerely, if you look at the race of me and Nicolo, we have been struggling since the beginning, because of a lack of grip and, especially in acceleration but also on braking, our bike goes sideways a lot.

“It was impossible to brake hard because, from the rear end of the bike you have no help – so, all the weight on the front. It was easy to crash because of the heat.

“But, at the end, I think we did our best. We have to play our game when it’s possible and try to play in defence when we don’t have any good points.

“Today, my pace was good, and we did a good race, we scored a lot of points compared to our challengers and we are there.”

Weight-based gear choice

Sam Lowes said on Friday that he was using third gear in the chicane at turns nine and 10, but that it was difficult with how low the revs drop to manage in braking, and even suggested that Nicolo Bulega’s crash in FP2 was down to him also using third gear there.

Fellow Ducati rider Petrucci said after Race 1 that he is using second gear in that corner because of his weight.

“In the first year I was using third gear – the bike is more smooth,” Petrucci explained.

“But, with my weight, it’s difficult to pull out the bike, so I’m using second.

“But today, since the first lap, I was struggling a lot when I brake, I was completely losing the rear, so it was impossible for me to brake hard because I was feeling the bike in neutral when I was braking.

“So, I started to brake a little bit less, but when I was approaching the corner I was still going sideways. So, it was difficult to manage all these things during the race.”