“It makes me angry - I apologised to Marc Marquez”

Danilo Petrucci once apologised to Marc Marquez on the podium for Italian fans booing him.

Petrucci won the Italian MotoGP at Mugello in 2019 ahead of Marquez and Andrea Dovizioso.

Marquez was inundated by boos from local fans who had not forgotten his rivalry with Valentino Rossi.

This season, Marquez was booed after winning in Misano - when Pecco Bagnaia came to his aid.

“It's not part of this sport to do this,” Petrucci said about the boos to MOW Mag.

“Because it means forgetting that a rider is risking his life when he gets on a motorbike.

“I'm sorry, and it makes me a little angry, that after so many years we still go back there. 

“Because I can understand, and I fully understand, the two protagonists, given that for them it will remain an open page as long as they live.

“But I don't understand those who were, after all, just a spectator in this story. For some, that's enough, right?

“The booing of Marc Marquez, like anyone else, is unacceptable, really bad stuff.

“When I won at Mugello with the Ducati, Marc was on the podium like me.

“I'll tell you a background story: if you look at the images there's a moment when I get close to his ear.

“Well, I was apologising to him for what I felt.

“I felt ashamed, even though I was drunk with joy at that moment.

“Yes, I apologised to him. Those whistles are what I would erase from that unforgettable day for me.

“This only happens in Italy, elsewhere the riders aren’t whistled. Never.”

That expression of negativity has followed Marquez in Italy, even though he now represents an Italian manufacturer.

Bagnaia gestured for fans to stop booing him at Misano this year, then later condemned the booing.

“I really appreciated Pecco's gesture on the Misano podium and I really hope it was the last time,” Petrucci said.

“Also because if they think they can intimidate Marc Marquez with whistles they don't understand that you just charge someone like that more.

“They give him a few tenths while whistling…”