Danilo Petrucci reflects on his “surprise” WorldSBK 2024 moment

Until September, Danilo Petrucci’s 2024 WorldSBK season had been defined by the severe injuries he sustained in a motocross crash in March, but a home round at a new circuit spun it in a positive direction.

The Cremona Circuit hadn’t hosted a major international motorcycle race before it hosted WorldSBK last year, meaning that it was difficult to make predictions about who would be strong there.

Perhaps the Italians, some of whom had previously used Cremona as a practice track, would be at an advantage; especially in the absence of Toprak Razgatlioglu, who had been dominating the mid-part of the season until his practice crash at the French Round in Magny-Cours only one week beforehand.

But, in the end, it was Petrucci who proved unbeatable all weekend.

“Cremona, it has been really a surprise,” Petrucci told WorldSBK.com.

“I was quite calm that day because I was not expecting so much.

“In the race, for me it was totally unexpected. I thought Nicolo [Bulega] was much faster than me.

“Then, at the end, I was so calm and relaxed, my bike worked perfectly, I was in front.

“When I saw on my pit board ‘0.5’ it’s like a signal, so I said ‘Come on Danilo, try to make a bigger gap’.”

Ultimately, Race 1 at Cremona was brought to an end by a red flag which saw Petrucci victorious for the first time in WorldSBK.

“Six laps to go, I remember so well,” he said.

“I came out from the last corner, I crossed the finish line, and on the dashboard [the message] appeared ‘red flag’.

“I started to make calculations because I saw six laps to go, but maybe the red flag was at seven laps to go, but at the end the race was 23 laps; so I started to make all these calculations when I was cheering to the fans.”

Petrucci’s success continued into Sunday, the Italian even surprising himself with his speed in the 10-lap sprint race on Sunday morning.

“In the Superpole Race, the target was to keep the first row of the grid, but immediately I felt and incredible feeling with the bike and I was not absolutely pushing,” he said.

“From the second or third lap I said ‘I’m riding in 1:28s so easy,’ and in fact I was just creating a gap lap after lap.”

He added: “For Race 2, the pressure was on because after the second victory of the weekend everybody was expecting the third.

“To make three wins in Cremona, in Italy, with that crowd was really like a dream.”