Danilo Petrucci hit by mystery issue at French WorldSBK: “I was scared to crash”

Fourth place for Danilo Petrucci at the French WorldSBK came after encountering an issue from Saturday morning on the Barni Ducati.

Petrucci qualified seventh in Superpole and was able to take a lonely fourth place in the race: over two seconds behind third-placed Alex Lowes, but almost three seconds ahead of Andrea Locatelli in fifth.

The Barni Spark rider said that he had run in to a problem on Saturday morning that affected his front feeling, and this prevented him from pushing in the race.

“Sincerely, since [Saturday] morning I’m struggling a bit with the front end of the bike and, especially in the last part of the braking area, I don’t feel the front wheel really good,” Danilo Petrucci told WorldSBK.com after Race 1 at Magny-Cours.

“We need to modify something because since the beginning of the race I never found a good rhythm.

“I tried to manage everything, both the front and the rear tyre, but I think we need to change something because I don’t understand some parts of the track, especially turn three, six, 11, and 14, maybe.

“It’s quite risky, I didn’t feel okay, I was scared to crash since the beginning and never pushing like I wanted.”

Petrucci said that he and the Barni team thought that the issue could be down to the SCQ tyre or low track temperatures during the Superpole session, but its recurrence in Race 1 indicated that it was something to fix on the bike.

“We thought it was the qualifying tyre or the cold temperature of the track, but in fact it was not,” Petrucci explained.

“It’s something that we need to understand.

“[Sunday] will be hard, I would like to gain some positions in the Superpole Race, and then let’s see for Race 2.

“It will be a higher temperature, so let’s see if something is changing.”

Although he was ultimately disappointed with the result, there was still one positive to take for Petrucci, in particular that he was able to finish ahead of both his rivals in the battle for third in the World Superbike riders' standings: Andrea Locatelli and Alvaro Bautista.

“I think it’s the only positive thing of [Saturday]; we have been able to score some points,” he said.

“Both Alvaro [Bautista] and Loka [Andrea Locatelli] have been a little bit unlucky [in Superpole], and then I’ve been able to gain some points and some positions.

“But I would like to be more fast [on Sunday].”