Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Team) has made his goal in the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship clear: he wants to win a race and make history. ‘Petrux’ has stood on the podium five times in the last six races, but the first victory still eludes him. At the Cremona Circuit, a new venue for WorldSBK, Petrucci showed strong pace in Free Practice 2 – the only representative session – to finish in second. Could this be his golden opportunity at the Acerbis Italian Round?
Petrucci’s best time, like the entire field, came in FP2 when he set a 1’29.766s. He finished just under a tenth behind Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK), who was the pace setter, and was directly ahead of factory Ducati rider Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati). It makes for good reading for Petrucci as he gets closer and closer to the first win, which would make him the first rider to win in MotoGP™, WorldSBK, STK1000, MotoAmerica and a stage of the Dakar Rally.
“I’m really happy about today,” began Petrucci when reviewing Friday’s action. “It’s quite a difficult track because, for me, today has been the first day on the Superbike bike at this track. I found myself in a good shape and the setup of the bike isn’t bad. I immediately started to have a good feeling. We did a comparison between the two race tyres. I prefer the SCX, the old one, but it’s good. It’ll be really tough, I think. Alex Lowes is a little bit faster than us, but we’ll try to stay there and try to win this race.”
It was put to Petrucci that the combination of Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) being absent coupled with a new circuit could mean this is the Italian’s best opportunity so far to claim a victory. He’s on a run of five podiums in six races, and six rostrums in his last nine races. His form since his coming back from his horrific injuries has been nothing short of remarkable, and both Petrucci and the team will be hoping to convert the strong pace into a maiden win.
Discussing whether this is the best chance he’s had to win in WorldSBK so far, Petrucci said: “It’s a good opportunity. For my team, Barni Racing, it’s their proper home round. The workshop is around one hour away from here. I would really like to, first of all, stand on the podium, then let’s see. It’s always difficult to predict a race.”
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Source: WorldSBK.com