Danilo Petrucci (Alma Pramac Racing) went in search for his second consecutive podium of the season at the Gran Premio d’Italia Oakley, a venue he finished third at last year, but the Italian’s race was disrupted with fuel pump issues, rear tyre woes and a first lap incident with Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team).
Starting from the middle of the second row at his home Grand Prix, Petrucci made a good start and was up to third on the exit from Turn 1. Marquez ran wide at the first corner, then lunged up the inside into Turn 2, forcing the Ducati rider to run wide and resulting in the number 9 losing half-a-dozen places. “I had a very good start, it’s strange for me but I was focused today. I made up two positions but then at Turn 2 Marquez does what he always does and put me out of the track. It’s unbelievable because I almost crashed and lost, I think, six or seven positions and so I passed the finish line on the first lap in P9, I was third at the first corner then I started to recover my position.”
It's a @DucatiMotor 1, 2, 3 as it stands!@Petrux9 holds third!#ItalianGP pic.twitter.com/j4sENUSUp5
— MotoGP™???????????? (@MotoGP) June 3, 2018
And recover his position is exactly what the Italian did, setting the fastest lap of the race to claw his way back up to the podium battle. This, however, meant Petrucci’s rear tyre was heavily worn towards the end of the race, all but destroying his hopes of a second podium in a row at Mugello. “I pushed very very hard, I did the fastest lap of the race but it was not enough because then I was fighting for the podium, but with five laps to go I was in trouble with the rear tyre,” explained Petrucci, who then ran into fuel pump issues. “Then even the fuel pump wasn’t working correctly so I lost a lot of power on the straights, so I lost the podium and even the top five.”
Regardless of the problems, ‘Petrux’ was positive about his race, as he could fight for the podium despite losing ground after the contact with Marquez. “It was a big shame because if even with Marquez pushing me off the track I was fighting for the podium. Yeah, I did a great race but unfortunately with five laps to go I got this problem with the fuel pump and my rear tyre was especially finished. Anyway, I would like to say thanks to my team for the great work, unfortunately we had some problems with this race, anyway it’s good points for the Championship, we are still fighting for second place and we’ll see in Barcelona.”
Asked if he thinks the World Championship leader should get some sort of penalty for the incident, Petrucci replied “I hope so…”