"For sure, I was not happy about last year"

The latest episode of Last On The Brakes is a cracking chat with a very popular Italian MotoGP™ race winner

If you thought you knew all you need to know about Ducati Team’s Danilo Petrucci, then think again. The MotoGP™ Podcast team are offering a giant slice of Petrucci pie in this week’s Last On The Brakes episode as the likeable Italian delves into some hard-hitting topics, such as nearly giving up Grand Prix racing in 2014.

Petrucci is also honest when it comes to talking about his first year in official Ducati red. 2019 was a tale of two halves for the Mugello race winner, and Petrucci shares his thoughts on what happened after the summer break. “For sure I was not happy about last year. Because the difference between the first and second part was very, very high,” says Petrucci. “I was fighting for the top three in the first part and in the second part, I was top 10 but not really competitive. I tried to give an explanation to myself especially but there is nothing really important that I found. I mean, I haven’t a solution or a reason why in the second part of the championship I wasn’t really competitive.

“Maybe it was because in the last three years I had always been on a one-year contract and I always had to prove to Ducati, Pramac and to myself that I am able to ride in a factory team. Then maybe I gave too much in the first seven months of the year. I woke up after Sachsenring on the Monday, I beat Dovi the day before and I looked at the championship and I was third, four points from Dovi - so I thought maybe I can be the rider that can fight with Marc? Maybe I had too much pressure in the second part, I started to… not ‘think too much’ but I started to ride with more strength, too much instinct and I always gave 101% and made stupid crashes or mistakes.

“In MotoGP™, to be in the top three you have to always be 100%, not 98% or 97%. If you’re fighting for the top three, then immediately you will fly down to 8th, 9th, or 10th… maybe it was too much pressure I was putting on myself because I had never looked at the classification before that time.”

Petrucci also offers his thoughts on MotoGP™’s proposed return to racing at the Circuito de Jerez-Angel Nieto in July, as well as how much he misses riding, a switch to rally, how winning at Mugello “wasn’t his dream”, being a police cadet and much more. So what are you waiting for? Head across to your preferred podcast platform and enjoy a fantastic chat with Petrucci – which is also available on YouTube!

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