WorldSBK rider calls out penalty weighting after "wasted" day

Danilo Petrucci’s Dutch WorldSBK weekend was mixed, but his Saturday at Assen was unambiguously disastrous .

Petrucci was able to set a better pace through most of the weekend than his teammate Miguel Oliveira, who had shown the better speed of the two BMW riders during the previous two World Superbike rounds in Australia and Portugal.

But a jump start in Race 1 got Petrucci a double long lap penalty. When taking the first of those, he went off into the gravel, which destroyed his race.

Petrucci explained that he was “too optimistic” when entering the long lap loop, but was also frustrated with the penalty itself, which he felt was “too big” for the infraction he committed.

“Sincerely, I watched I think hundreds of times that start, and it never happened [that I jumped the start],” Danilo Petrucci said, speaking to WorldSBK.com after Race 2. 

“I’m racing since 20 years and I never did a jump start. 

“I was quite surprised and the mistake I did was mainly that I haven’t tried the long lap penalty area and, when I went in, I went in too optimistic. 

“There was a big cliff, I lost the front and I had to release the brake. Then there is no run-off area, is immediately the gravel, and I wasted all my Saturday. 

“I think in general it was I think too big penalty for that kind of movement. When you touch another rider you have to drop one position. 

“Especially because I haven’t gained any position, because at turn one I was seventh so I was really surprised to see myself penalised with two long lap penalties.”

Petrucci rebounded to some extent on Sunday, finishing in the top-10 in both races. After Assen, Petrucci sits 11th in the standings on 41 points, 28 behind his teammate Oliveira who is the leading non-Ducati rider in fourth.