“Really upset” Danilo Petrucci explains Remy Gardner Cremona WorldSBK incident
“Blue flags were waving for Remy [Gardner], but he decided to cross the track between turns 11 and 12 when I was coming.”
Danilo Petrucci finished Friday practice at the WorldSBK Italian Round second overall, but his day was overshadowed by an incident with Remy Gardner in FP2.
The cause of the incident was not made clear by TV replays, which only showed Petrucci making a one-handed gesture while looking back at Gardner between turns one and two as he slowed on the line. Gardner, in avoidance, took to the gravel, and offered Petrucci a one-handed gesture in return.
“I was pushing,” Petrucci’s explanation of the incident began, speaking to WorldSBK.com.
“It was my second lap pushing, and in the first lap I found another rider stopping between the penultimate and the last corner. So I have to abort my fast lap, I was two-tenths faster.
“The other lap, I was coming, approaching again, I was two-tenths faster than my best lap; blue flags were waving for Remy [Gardner], but he decided to cross the track between turns 11 and 12 when I was coming and Iost [out] for looking what he was doing — I lost all my gap.
“Another lap, it was the second lap ruined by another rider and I was really upset."
Asked if he had spoken to Gardner, Petrucci said only: “I have my idea, he [Gardner] has his own idea. For sure, I saw him looking at me and I saw the blue flags, so I don’t understand why he decided to cross the track.”
There were also concerns about track conditions for Petrucci, after overnight rain left the track damp in FP1.
“After a lot of rain, the track was not really in a perfect condition, so I was missing a lot of grip at the front and rear, and in the middle of the corner my bike slides so much,” he said.
“So, I have really to care about managing the throttle, trying to pick up the bike as quickly as possible without losing any speed or without sliding.
“It’s not easy, especially because on this track you have one line and when you try to do something more you are immediately out of the line and you lose a lot.”
The positive for Petrucci, though, was his pace, which put him among the contenders for the podium.
“I’m really happy about today,” Petrucci said. “It’s quite a difficult track, because, for me, today has been the first time with the Superbike in this track. But I found myself in a good shape, the base setup of the bike is not really bad.
“So, I started immediately to have a good feeling. We did a comparison between the two race tyres, the [standard] SCX tyre and the other [development] one. I prefer still the [standard] one, but at the end it’s good.
“It will be really tough, I think. Alex Lowes is a little bit faster than us, but we try to stay there and try to win this race.”
