Danilo Petrucci to undergo hand surgery, hopes to return at Jerez WorldSBK

Barni Spark’s Danilo Petrucci will undergo surgery on his injured right hand in the hopes of being able to return to racing at the 2025 WorldSBK finale in Jerez on 17–19 October after being ruled out of this weekend’s (10–12 October) Estoril Round.

Petrucci entered the Estoril weekend with a 30-point lead over Andrea Locatelli, and a 31-point advantage over Alvaro Bautista, in the battle for third place in the World Superbike riders’ standings.

His intentions were therefore to race in Estoril to try to defend his bronze medal position, but he was declared unfit after FP1 on Friday morning.

The Italian confirmed afterwards that he hopes to return to racing in Jerez next week at the final round of the 2025 season, but that he will undergo surgery on Monday.

“I'm very sorry,” Danilo Petrucci said on Friday in Estoril after being declared unfit, as reported by GPOne.

“Unfortunately, this was one of the possible scenarios, although I didn't think it would come true. 

“This morning I tried to ride, but I felt a lot of pain and, unfortunately, I finished breaking the metacarpal. 

“Now I'm back in Italy and I'll have surgery on Monday, with the hope of being able to return perhaps already in Jerez. We will see how the hand goes after the surgery and if it will be possible to return to the track soon. 

“I'm really sorry, I broke the weakest bone in my body, the one where I already have three screws.

“It's a double injury that I've been carrying around since 2016. 

“In the past I had already broken this metacarpal, and then also the two next to it, on which a plate had been placed. 

“Bad luck has it that the plate was not placed right on the metacarpal that has broken now. Now we try to fix everything and come back as soon as possible.”

Petrucci’s rivals for that third place in the standings, Bautista and Locatelli, were 11th and 10th, respectively, in FP2 on Friday afternoon in Estoril.