It is a story by Danilo Petrucci which is to be written in the history books of motorcycle racing since it relates an authentic exploit and a fact never seen before. He is a MotoGP rider who won a stage of the most demanding rally raid in existence, the Dakar. And it's good that it's Petrux who tells his epic story, because the man has great sensitivity and a very good sense of humor. The proof…
Danilo Petrucci is in history! He is the first pilot MotoGP to win a stage of the Dakar Rally. The rider from Terni, who finished second, finally won the 5th stage after the penalty imposed on the winner Toby Price, winner of two editions of the race. Price was penalized 6 minutes for a speed limit violation, the same penalty that had cost Petrucci his first podium.
He recounts his epic journey thus: “ I made a bad flight at km 60 to avoid a camel. It was a group of camels and the only black one came towards me… I had to go off the track but it was full of holes and bumps and I threw myself on the ground ". He adds : " it was my first crash in this rally. I would have liked to kill this camel. Yes, I wanted to kill the cattle, but I know now that here in Saudi Arabia, camels are more valuable than women. It was therefore best to leave the animal in peace. Camels are pretty big! I have to tell you that I imagined them smaller. But they are huge! ».
« After this incident, I was a little confused, because the fall was quite significant, I drove a long distance. For a while I couldn't get this camel out of my head. Then I convinced myself: “go forward, I have to get to the finish line” ". But Petrux was not at the end of his troubles: “ I had terrible problems with my pants. The waist closure was damaged and was opening. It kept sliding down, I kept having to pull it back up. And then if I didn't feel at my best in the dunes too because of an ankle that hurt me ».
« I then pushed hard and Daniel Saunders from GASGAS helped me mightily », Rejoices the double MotoGP winner. “ He is an incredibly fast rider and my bike performed perfectly. We were very fast on the stones and rocky sections, which allowed us to gain a lot of time on the leaders. I navigated well, which allowed us to lose all our pursuers in the bed of a dry river, there were six of them! And when I found the waypoint, I accelerated hard again ».
Danilo Petrucci: “so I made up two seconds in four hourss ”
« The dunes over the last 50 kilometers seemed endless », described the newcomer to the Dakar. “ Once I almost fell into a hole, but was able to change direction at the last moment. But I again put a lot of strain on my damaged right ankle during this maneuver, and in addition Ross Branch was clearly faster than me. He excelled in the fast sections of the dunes. You always had to drive in third gear on the uphill dunes, and even though I took a lot of risks to stay on his heels, I didn't succeed.'.
Starting two minutes before Petrucci, the Honda driver crossed the finish line 1 min 58 s before the Italian. “ So I made up two seconds in four hours », sighed Danilo. “ In reality, it was my KTM colleague Toby Price who won the stage, he started far behind and was able to follow the many tracks. Toby is also such an incredible rally champion, but unfortunately after winning the stage he received a 6 minute penalty for breaking the speed limit, like me the day before. He drove at 50 km/h instead of 30 for a few meters ».
