Remy Gardner (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) and Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Team) were both penalised following their Free Practice 2 altercation at the Cremona Circuit. With the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship visiting for the first time, both were hoping to stake a claim for a strong result but that has been hampered for Race 1 due to both receiving grid drops for the Acerbis Italian Round.
Both Gardner and Petrucci were found to have been riding slowly on the racing line during Friday’s Free Practice 2 session by the FIM Stewards and handed out the same penalty to both: a three-place grid drop on the Race 1 grid. It means Petrucci will start from sixth rather than third, while Gardner will be 19th instead of 16th.
Speaking after Friday’s events concluded, both the #87 and the #9 gave their thoughts on the incident and gave their version of events to sum up what happened. The incident happened towards the end of FP2, with Petrucci’s offence occurring on the run down to Turn 2 when Gardner had to take avoiding action and ended up in the gravel. He kept his bike upright and re-joined the session.
Giving his side of the story, Petrucci said: “On the first lap, I found another rider stopping between the penultimate and the last corner so, I had to abort my first lap. I was two tenths faster. I was pushing on my second lap; I was approaching again and was two tenths faster than my best lap. The blue flags were waving for me, but he decided to cross the track when I was coming. That made me really upset. I don’t know if I will speak with him. I have no idea. He has got his own idea. I saw him, looking at me, and I saw the blue flags, so I don’t understand why he decided to cross the track. Let’s focus on Saturday and the first of two race days.”
On his version of events, Gardner said in a media scrum: “I’ve got a penalty as well, which I don’t agree with. I don’t understand how I got the penalty. Three places. the team are appealing it, and they are completely behind me. There is a video of me getting off the line in the last chicane to the left, and he goes through. I’m off the line, out of the way. You can see me getting out of the way because I was looking for a tear off. But they continue to reinstate the penalty of three places, which, like I said, the team are appealing. This was my out lap, and I was just trying to look for some clean air. I started my first lap on a new tyre and arrived at Turn 2, and Petrucci was just kind of sitting up there on the line quite dangerously. And I had nowhere to go except pick up the bike and go into the dirt. And I think I lost another extra flying lap for that. And I got stuck in the dirt. I think it’s incredible that I have the same penalty when I’m actually getting off the line not doing what he’s done, and he’s done something intentional. It would be nice if my girlfriend would pay as much attention to me as Petrucci. I passed him in the Steward’s office, but he wouldn’t speak. Couldn’t look at me. Head down. I was trying to look at him, to have a word with him, to understand what the problem is. But sorry, I’m out there to do my own job, not think about other riders.”
Speaking about his rivalry with Petrucci, and referring to the incident at Most where Petrucci, Bautista and Gardner were involved in a Turn 1 crash, the Australian added: “I cannot even comprehend why Most is even my fault. Like I can’t even comprehend that he’s made these statements because he was behind me. What do you want me to do if I’m in front? It’s a rider thing. I try not to get involved with these silly incidents. The only person I’ve taken out so far is my teammate Domi. And we’re best friends. I’ve known Danilo very well for 20 years. And I think that we are two young guys. Maybe this evening, I’ll try to manage something, to speak each other. I think I’m quite mature about this. I would like to have a word with him just to solve this. The feeling was he didn’t want to speak to me in the Steward’s office, so I don’t know. I don’t have anything against him. I treat all the riders the same. In the end, they’re all competitors. I race fair and square. I try not to put anyone on the ground because I know it’s dangerous and injuries can happen. I think this should be the same mentality from Danilo.”
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Source: WorldSBK.com