Canepa put lessons into practice in second flag-to-flag race

Niccolò Canepa rode his first ever flag-to-flag race at Le Mans last month and, although he didn’t have too much success in that particular race, the Pramac Racing rider was glad of the practice in the unusual situation. Having learnt lessons from the French visit, the Italian was able to have a better race under wet-dry circumstances at Mugello, taking home his best result of the year to date.

“I’m very happy, because it’s the first time that I have finished in the top ten in MotoGP,” said ninth-placed Canepa after the second consecutive split race. “The beginning of the season was not very good for me, and here I’ve had my first opportunity to show what I can do.

“In Le Mans I made a couple of mistakes when we changed bikes and I was very slow at the beginning with the dry bike. I spoke with the team and we solved all the problems surrounding changing the bike. Here I was faster on the first three or four laps after switching.”

Those initial laps on slicks proved to be crucial for final race positions, with the faster riders up to speed quickest on dry tyres placing highest at the Gran Premio d’Italia Alice. Canepa also had the advantage of extensive track time at Mugello in testing –although never in the wet, surprisingly- a situation that repeats itself at the next round of his rookie season.

“I’m happy to be going to Barcelona next, because it’s one of my favourite tracks, and we will see what we can do there.”