After running third fastest in the Aragon test on Day one Danilo Petrucci appears to have finally found come to find some long lasting chemistry with his Ducati V4R. On day two of testing Petrucci ran fastest in the morning session setting a 1m49.168 lap time to top the table.
Petrucci commented on his day 1 success: “Maybe it’s the first day of the test this year that went straight. We didn’t make many modifications, but we got some new parts; new brake discs. We needed to compare some parts, like the triple clamp and small setup adjustments. In the end, it wasn’t bad. The lap times were harder to repeat in the afternoon as the wind was a bit stronger; in the morning, I had a better feeling. In the end, without using a Q tyre, we were fast until the end and with the pace, I can repeat the time and I can be satisfied.”
Petrucci Continued His Thoughts on Day 2
“Day two was okay. We found the track was a bit faster than day one, and it was less windy. The feeling was good. We followed our programme to test some different triple clamps and something different on the brakes and engine brake. We also put on an SCQ tyre at the end of the morning session, and I felt okay. One of the areas I’m struggling in the most is Superpole, and the first laps of races, so we focused on this at the test. Since lap one this morning, I was able to be fast and the feeling with the bike was okay.”
“With the WorldSBK format, if you have a bad Superpole or Superpole Race, your Race 1 and Race 2 are over. If you’re not fast, you start so far back. Superpole is really important and especially being with a new tyre to create a gap and follow the first riders. This is one of the things we worked with at this test.”
The test results are welcomed after Petrucci struggled in the early season to find the pace for podium contention. Now that Petrucci has a few podiums under his belt and is learning the bike we anticipate he will return to his winning ways and potentially compete with Bautista. Unfortunately the championship race is all but over for Petrucci. Bautista currently holds a 272 point lead over Petrucci who currently sits in sixth place in the championship standings. With 4 rounds left this year there are not enough points on the table to turn things around but there is room to improve finishing position in the championship. If the pace that Petrucci has found is long lasting it could throw the front runners for a loop as the season comes to a close.