Petrucci race pace 'not the best'

Danilo Petrucci hopes to improve his race pace on Saturday with the Pramac Ducati after setting the third fastest time in free practice at Assen on the opening day of the Dutch MotoGP.

Petrucci set his best lap in 1m 33.764s as he finished FP2 0.386s down on Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales, but the Italian feels he is lacking in race pace.

“I think that I am not the best on the race pace but anyway I am happy to finish today in third position: it’s good but we have to work on the pace because we struggled a little bit with the used tyre,” said Petrucci, who is nursing a foot injury following a spill during the post-race Catalunya test.

“We have to fix the bike in that way but anyway I think we can fight tomorrow to be in the first two rows. At the moment I think Maverick (Vinales), Marc (Marquez) and Dovi (Andrea Dovizioso) have something more, watching the lap times; I understand after following Maverick, who is two or three tenths faster than me – it’s a big gap.

“We will see and maybe we will find a solution tomorrow and we can fight for the top five on Sunday, but we have to go directly into Q2 for tomorrow because like always, the top ten is very close but for the moment I am happy.”

Petrucci said that although he was trying a modified frame this weekend - like the factory Ducati riders - the consumption of the rear tyre was having the biggest impact on the set-up of his machine.

“Small changes, but there is a big tyre consumption so you feel this more but the bike is quite good. I put the soft tyre on for the last three laps and I was the only one starting FP2 with the hard used rear; I have a good pace with the hard rear but comparing to Maverick, there are three or four tenths each lap,” he said.

“But I finished with a 22-laps tyre and when you start with a used tyre from the morning, it is not nice like starting like a new one, there is a big difference. We will see tomorrow and in FP4 we can see all the pace with the race tyre.”