Danilo Petrucci has expressed the importance of finishing strongly this weekend at Valencia’s MotoGP World Championship finale, the Ducati Team rider admitting to a ‘complicated’ second half of the season.

Petrucci has endured a challenging campaign in the back half of 2019, with the Italian recently recovering from a heavy crash at the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix last month.

“For me this race is very important, because after a rather complicated second half of the season I want to finish the year with a good result,” Petrucci explained. “I don’t think we are that far away, but we still have to resolve a few details to be more competitive in the race.

“Valencia is a circuit that I like, and in the last few days I’ve managed to recover well from the consequences of the crash in Australia, so I think we can do a good race.”

The number nine currently holds down fifth in the championship standings, with rookie Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha SRT) just four points behind him.