Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Team) has enjoyed an impressive 2024 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship season with three wins and numerous podiums, and his success this year has been rewarded with the top Independent Riders’ title for the season. He secured the title in Race 2 at the Circuito Estoril as he fended off the challenge from Andrea Iannone (Team GoEleven), ensuring he and the Barni Ducati team celebrated success in 2024.
PETRUCCI’S SEASON: three wins, 10 podiums… but a horrible training crash
It has been a turbulent 2024 season for the Italian rider, with some incredible highs: three wins on home soil, podium consistency but also a devastatingly low period when he suffered a near-career ending crash in March whilst training ahead of the Dutch Round: “I must say that the accident I had made me understand the value of life and what matters.” He continued: “From the accident I had during the training in April, from that moment on we had always good fights in the top five, and in August and September we were really good. Now I have no pressure, I still have a good fight with Alex Lowes for fourth place in the Championship but for sure the weekend was something unexpected.”
WRAPPING UP THE INDEPENDENT TITLE: success for Petrucci
Petrucci described his happiness about winning the Independent Riders’ title – with a round to spare despite missing a round earlier in the season following his crash: “I’m really happy…exhausted. Who would have predicted this many podiums and wins, fourth place in the championship especially having missed one and a half rounds.” Despite Estoril not being one of the #9 riders most successful weekends, he still claimed the title ahead of fellow Italian Andrea Iannone (Team GoElevon).
Danilo explained: “In fact, this has been our worst weekend, because I crashed yesterday, fifth this morning and this afternoon… but from one moment to another I have been fighting for the lead all the session. We have faced a lot of difficulties with traction and so on, we are still to understand why, because in testing here it was a good testing and we were quite confident. In the end we managed to enjoy and hope to have a good final round in Jerez.”
2025 CHAMPIONSHIP HOPES? A strong contender for the title
Responding to the potential chance of being a strong contender in 2025, the 33-year-old explained: “It would be really tough to fight for the title next year. I think it would be good to fight for the top 3 in the championship but looking at the people who are in front of us, big names, especially Toprak, Nicolo and Alvaro, really good riders and you have to be perfect to beat them. I don’t know about the title but it would be really nice to finish in the top 3, we will still fight and first of all we have to finish in a good way this championship.”
Looking forward to the final round of the season he added: “Jerez is always a particular round because we have testing there in January so all the riders know the track really well. It’s a track that I like, last year I scored a top five, it was not a really good weekend. but we have no pressure, I want to enjoy this last weekend with my team and a bit of celebration I think after.”
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Source: WorldSBK.com