Fifteenth in the morning, it was a convincing second place that Danilo Petrucci finished his first day of Czech Republic Grand Prix. Under a blazing sun, it attracted attention with a new fairing showing that the holidays had been studious in Borgo Panigale. An accessory that gave satisfaction, but not only that…
Danilo Petrucci will be the future official Ducati rider and will succeed Jorge Lorenzo as a teammate Dovizioso. He must therefore demonstrate all the good things that his compatriots in red think of him, and in Brno, this Friday, he reassured, while inspecting a new fairing: “ They did a good job,” commented Petrux. “It’s all the more remarkable because at this level of competition, it’s complicated to make this kind of modification. However, there is no negative point ».
« This is something essential in the competition: everything worked perfectly from the start. It's certain, we're not going to gain a second, but rather tenths and 1 km/h over 350. But we gain in agility without losing either braking or top speed. We need to analyze this more deeply, but it’s a success. I don’t know if I have one or two, so I better not fall with it.” He ends on the subject: “the advantage is that we can assemble and disassemble it without touching the rest of the motorcycle ».
But this is not the only novelty that the Pramac pilot presented: “ until then, my weight was a handicap so with my engineer Danilo Romagnoli, we decided to review the settings of the bike so that it became an advantage. We worked on the distribution of masses differently. The result is not bad, but I will tell you more on Sunday at 15:00 p.m.! ».
The teammate of a Jack Miller disappointed at not being able to better exploit its soft tires assesses the forces present: “ Dovizioso and Marquez have the best pace. Dovi is notably very fast. But the bike changes a lot between the first and last lap. Tires will still play an essential role. As for me, we'll see about the podium because the Yamahas are there and probably also Crutchlow ».
Czech Republic Grand Prix Brno MotoGP J.1: Chronos
| 1 | 26 | Dani PEDROSA | Honda | 1'55.976 | ||
| 2 | 9 | Danilo PETRUCCI | Ducati | 1'56.099 | 0.123 | 0.123 |
| 3 | 19 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | Ducati | 1'56.144 | 0.168 | 0.045 |
| 4 | 55 | Hafiz Syahrin | Yamaha | 1'56.200 | 0.224 | 0.056 |
| 5 | 4 | Andrea Dovizioso | Ducati | 1'56.218 | 0.242 | 0.018 |
| 6 | 25 | Maverick VIÑALES | Yamaha | 1'56.392 | 0.416 | 0.174 |
| 7 | 46 | Valentino ROSSI | Yamaha | 1'56.480 | 0.504 | 0.088 |
| 8 | 53 | Tito RABAT | Ducati | 1'56.521 | 0.545 | 0.041 |
| 9 | 5 | johann zarco | Yamaha | 1'56.535 | 0.559 | 0.014 |
| 10 | 93 | Marc Márquez | Honda | 1'56.635 | 0.659 | 0.100 |
| 11 | 29 | Andrea Iannone | Suzuki | 1'56.644 | 0.668 | 0.009 |
| 12 | 42 | Alex Rins | Suzuki | 1'56.661 | 0.685 | 0.017 |
| 13 | 43 | Jack Miller | Ducati | 1'56.915 | 0.939 | 0.254 |
| 14 | 35 | Cal Crutchlow | Honda | 1'57.014 | 1.038 | 0.099 |
| 15 | 99 | Jorge Lorenzo | Ducati | 1'57.205 | 1.229 | 0.191 |
| 16 | 41 | Aleix Espargaro | Aprilia | 1'57.417 | 1.441 | 0.212 |
| 17 | 44 | Pol Espargaró | KTM | 1'57.473 | 1.497 | 0.056 |
| 18 | 6 | Stefan BRADL | Honda | 1'57.479 | 1.503 | 0.006 |
| 19 | 21 | Frank MORBIDELLI | Honda | 1'57.498 | 1.522 | 0.019 |
| 20 | 38 | Bradley SMITH | KTM | 1'57.506 | 1.530 | 0.008 |
| 21 | 30 | Takaaki NAKAGAMI | Honda | 1'57.647 | 1.671 | 0.141 |
| 22 | 12 | Thomas LUTHI | Honda | 1'57.729 | 1.753 | 0.082 |
| 23 | 45 | Scott REDDING | Aprilia | 1'57.941 | 1.965 | 0.212 |
| 24 | 17 | Karel ABRAHAM | Ducati | 1'58.127 | 2.151 | 0.186 |
| 25 | 10 | Xavier SIMEON | Ducati | 1'58.453 | 2.477 | 0.326 |
| 26 | 50 | Sylvain GUINTOLI | Suzuki | 1'58.617 | 2.641 | 0.164 |
