Disaster for BMW at Donington – Danilo Petrucci has no explanation

Following his serious crash at Most, Danilo Petrucci was forced to miss the Superbike rounds at Aragon and Misano due to injury. At Donington Park, the seasoned rider is back on his BMW. The Italian wants to – and needs to – put in strong performances in the upcoming races to secure his place on an M1000RR for 2027 as well.

Petrucci had the opportunity to test at Donington ahead of the race weekend in England on 23 June. He emphasised that he had enjoyed the day and that this gave him an advantage. However, there was little sign of this on the first day at Donington. In FP1 on Friday morning, Petrucci finished 16th, over a second off the pace. Things went even worse in FP2 that afternoon – he was 17th, over 1.2 seconds behind World Championship leader Nicolo Bulega (Ducati). His team-mate Miguel Oliveira even finished the second free practice session in 20th place. Day 1 at Donington was therefore a disaster for BMW.

“First and foremost, we need to work on the bike’s set-up to understand why we’re so slow. My general feeling is that we’re not really bad in any one specific area, but we’re slow more or less everywhere. Over a lap, it’s more than a second,” said Petrucci, assessing the current situation. “There isn’t one major weakness. But perhaps that’s an even bigger problem, because there isn’t a specific area where we need to improve. However, it was only Day 1 and the team are working very hard so that we can at least be in the top 10 on Saturday – that’s the aim. Of course, I’d expected to be a bit better.”

Conditions were similar at the test on 23 June, which makes it even harder to understand why the BMW riders struggled so much on Friday at Donington. “I was three or four tenths of a second faster during the test. That’s not brilliant, but I was faster,” mused Petrucci. “The good thing is that Miguel and I are saying the same things. But neither of us can feel any difference when we change something in the set-up – that’s not good. As I said before, there isn’t one specific area where we need to improve – it’s everywhere. So we need to take a thorough look at every corner.”

Does he see a light at the end of the tunnel? “Let me put it this way: when I’m riding the bike, I’m pushing and I feel fast. But at the end of the lap, I’m a second off being really fast,” said Petrucci. “I don’t enjoy seeing myself so far down the standings. But I do enjoy riding the bike on this track. It’s no secret that we need to improve.”

After his long spell of injuries – how is he physically? “I’ve still got a bit of pain in my right knee, but I feel better than I did in testing. It might get worse over the race distance if I have to use my leg more. But physically, I don’t have any major problems at the moment,” said the 35-year-old, giving an update on his condition.