Dutch Grand Prix TT Assen MotoGP J3 Danilo Petrucci: “Ducati's goal is to win the Championship with Dovizioso”

For most of the race, Danilo Petrucci remained in fifth place, just behind his teammate Andrea Dovizioso. The situation was then very delicate between the two Italian teammates at Ducati, because it was important that Dovi score as many points as possible in the Championship to be able to resist Marc Marquez. But the scenario was changed at the end of the race when Franco Morbidelli and his Yamaha barely managed to get between the two Desmosedici.

The Assen circuit is not considered particularly favorable to the Ducati, but that did not prevent Petrucci from setting the third fastest time in the first two practice sessions combined in 1'32.952, 0.314 behind the leader. Maverick Vinnales and at 0.134 of fabio quartararo. The situation was even brighter on Saturday morning when Danilo set the second fastest time in 1'32.580, 0.109 behind Fabio Quartararo.

The situation therefore seemed promising for qualifying, but Petrucci could not do better in Q2 than seventh in 1'33.282, 1.265 behind Fabio Quartararo's pole position, while his teammate Andrea Dovizioso had to settle for eleventh position in 1'33.692. at 1.675.

Petrucci was seventh after the first lap of the race, just behind Dovizioso off to a good start. Rins, Quartararo, Viñales sped ahead, while the two Ducati officials resisted Joan Mir and Franco Morbidelli.

Finally Dovizioso superbly saved fourth place, while Petrucci was overtaken by Franco Morbidelli in the very last race and had to give up sixth position to him.

In the provisional ranking of the World Championship, Petrucci now has 108 points, compared to 116 for his teammate Dovizioso, which should avoid certain detrimental frictions that Luigi Dall'Igna fears. Petrucci also unwittingly took advantage of Alex Rins' fall to strengthen Ducati's position against Suzuki, taking third place to the Spaniard's detriment. But Álex is only 7 points behind Danilo and the season is far from over.

This sixth place in the Netherlands is the worst obtained by Petrux, sixth already in Qatar, in Argentina, then in Texas, and then winner in Italy and third in Catalonia.

According to Danilo Petrucci, who are " This weekend was a bit strange, because we started off on the right foot and we were always among the first in free practice.”

“I felt really confident aboard my GP Desmosedici, but the rise in temperatures complicated the situation because when the grip drops we struggle more than our rivals and today it was not possible to follow the lead. pace at the front.”

“In the second half of the race, Andrea and I engaged in a fun battle against other drivers, but unfortunately I lost one.”

“On the bright side, I am now third in the championship and we are heading to Sachsenring: I barely missed the podium there last year and this time we will try to make sure that we'll get there ».

After the Ducati press release, here is a more personal version : " I'm between a rock and a hard place. My contractual situation worries me ».

Ducati does not offer him enough to renew his contract for 2020. In these conditions, Danilo cannot be calm. In the Netherlands, more than his race position, he seemed to think of Dovizioso. “ It's difficult to fight against your teammate » he explained.

“It’s a complicated challenge because I have to be particularly attentive to him, he is second in the championship. I can't risk overtaking him too much, in fact on the last lap, so as not to attack him, I didn't try and Morbidelli overtook me.

“Right now I'm in a strange position, because no one expected certain results from me. I've always been aware of my potential, even when I was with Ioda for the last time. I had never been so fast because I had never been in an official team.”

Wouldn't it be appropriate to just think about yourself?

“It’s a difficult question to answer. In the team at the moment there is no strategy, they just told me not to take risks to overtake him. The goal is to win the World Championship with Dovizioso.”

Does everything change with contract renewal?

“I am in a difficult situation to manage, between a hard place and a hammer. It is not convenient for me to go into too much detail regarding the conditions of my renewal ».

Wouldn't it be appropriate to clarify things as soon as possible?

“That’s what I said as soon as I got off the bike. I would like us to meet to define everything for the next races ».

On Thursday, you seemed more optimistic, why?

“Like I said, I can’t be too specific. We don't agree on the numbers and to get the numbers I want I need to get certain results.”

Following this logic, things could go very far.

" What can I say ? We’ll see when we can close the deal.”

Runs like this don't help.

“It was a strange weekend and a very complicated Sunday. At the beginning, I was one of the biggest; quickly, on Saturday morning, I had even lapped under the track record. Then the temperatures rose and driving the motorcycle became very difficult. Today I managed to keep a good pace in the race, but the last 10 laps were a nightmare. The positive side is my 3rd place in the Championship, but I was too far from the first in the race. There's not much reason to smile ».

The problems caused by lack of grip on the track?

“The conditions were the same for everyone, but when that happens we lose traction and we can't be fast. To have taken 14 seconds is to be very, very far from the best ».

That the Ducati suffers from the heat seems to be a new thing?

“The strange thing is that temperatures increased in the middle of the weekend. When you arrive at Sepang you expect it to be hot and you prepare yourself. Unfortunately, because of the understeer we suffer from these conditions, we are not able to bring speed inside the curve and the result is that we take a tenth per lap.”

The opposite of the Suzuki you fought.

“They stretch the lap by a kilometer with their trajectories, but they are fast. I struggled with Mir, he still lacks experience, but he will become a big problem. The Suzukis are capable of using the entire track. If we try to swerve in a curve, we won't be able to reach the rope. It is difficult to fight them on tracks where there are no long straights or low speed accelerations ».

Grand Prix results:

1. Maverick VIÑALES Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP 40'55.415
2. Marc MÁRQUEZ Repsol Honda Team +4.854
3. Fabio QUARTARARO Petronas Yamaha SRT +9.738
4. Andrea DOVIZIOSO Ducati Team +14.147
5. Franco MORBIDELLI Petronas Yamaha SRT +14.467
6. Danilo PETRUCCI Ducati Team +14.794 
7. Cal CRUTCHLOW LCR Honda CASTROL +18.361
8. Joan MIR Team SUZUKI ECSTAR +24.268
9. Jack MILLER Pramac Racing +26.496
10. Andrea IANNONE Aprilia Racing Team Gresini +26.997
11. Pol ESPARGARÓ SPA Red Bull KTM Factory Racing +28.732
12. Aleix ESPARGARÓ Aprilia Racing Team Gresini +34.095
13. Miguel OLIVEIRA Red Bull KTM Tech 3 +34.181
14. Francesco BAGNAIA Pramac Racing +34.249
15. Hafizh SYAHRIN Red Bull KTM Tech 3 +34.494
16. Tito RABAT Reale Avintia Racing +48.357
17. Karel ABRAHAM Reale Avintia Racing 1 Lap
Unclassified
5 Johann ZARCO Red Bull KTM Factory Racing
30 Takaaki NAKAGAMI LCR Honda IDEMITSU
46 Valentino ROSSI Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP
42 Alex RINS Team SUZUKI ECSTAR

Provisional ranking of the World Championship:

1. Marc MÁRQUEZ Honda 160
2. Andrea DOVIZIOSO Ducati 116
3. Danilo PETRUCCI Ducati 108 
4. Alex RINS Suzuki 101
5. Valentino ROSSI Yamaha 72
6. Fabio QUARTARARO Yamaha 67
7. Maverick VIÑALES Yamaha 65
8. Jack MILLER Ducati 60
9. Pol ESPARGARÓ KTM 52
10. Cal CRUTCHLOW Honda 51
11. Takaaki NAKAGAMI Honda 48
12. Franco MORBIDELLI Yamaha 45
13. Aleix ESPARGARÓ Aprilia 31
14. Joan MIR Suzuki 30
15. Jorge LORENZO Honda 19
16. Andrea IANNONE Aprilia 18
17. Johann ZARCO KTM 16
18. Miguel OLIVEIRA KTM 15
19. Francesco BAGNAIA Ducati 11
20. Michele PIRRO Ducati 9
21. Tito RABAT Ducati 9
22. Stefan BRADL Honda 6
23. Sylvain GUINTOLI Suzuki 3
24. Hafizh SYAHRIN KTM 2
25. Karel ABRAHAM Ducati 2

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