For the Misano GP, Danilo Petrucci rejected the Suzuki Ecstar team. But next weekend he will drive the Thailand GP instead of Joan Mir.
When the Suzuki Ecstar team, for the Misano GP, was looking for a replacement for the injured ex-world champion Joan Mir (heavy fall on lap 1 at the Austrian GP, damaged right ankle) and wanted to put Danilo Petrucci on the Suzuki GSX-RR , the 31-year-old Italian turned down team manager Livio Suppo’s offer. He didn’t want to jeopardize his chances of winning the US Superbike Championship with the Warhorse Ducati New York team.
But last weekend «Petrux» lost the title fight against Jake Gagne from the Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha Racing team in the finale at «Barber Motorsports Park» in Alabama.
Gagne came into the final two races four points clear of Ducati star Danilo Petrucci but secured the MotoAmerica Championship title with a first and second place finish with 376 to 356 points ahead of Petrucci, who finished 3rd and 4th at Alabama 4 didn’t come out.
While in Misano the Japanese Kazuki Watanabe got on the Suzuki instead of Joan Mir and Joan Mir made a comeback attempt in Aragón himself, which he stopped on Saturday, the Suzuki test driver Takuya Tsuda was allowed to climb on the GSX-RR in Motegi. But Suzuki suffered a flop at the home GP: Takuya Tsuda’s bike caught fire and Alex Rins retired.
Petrucci contested the MotoGP World Championship from 2012 to the end of the 2021 season. He was signed with Pramac-Ducati for four years from 2015 to 2018, then two years (2019 and 2020) in the factory team as a teammate of Andrea Dovizioso, then he switched to Tech3-KTM. “Petrux” finished the 2019 MotoGP World Championship in sixth place overall, having been eighth in the World Championship in the two previous years. Two MotoGP victories are also on his account: 2019 in Mugello and 2020 in Le Mans.
KTM let enthusiastic off-road rider Petrucci onto a factory machine at the Dakar Rally in January 2022, the warhorse stunned with his riding skills on his first desert rally and won a stage!
Petrucci drove a Suter BMW with the BMW four-cylinder in-line engine in the 2012 MotoGP World Championship from September and in the 2013 season, and in 2014 an ART V4 Aprilia. Suzuki will only be driving a GP machine with an in-line engine for the first time in nine years.