Till September, Danilo Petrucci’s 2024 WorldSBK season had been outlined by the extreme accidents he sustained in a motocross crash in March, however a house spherical at a brand new circuit spun it in a optimistic route.
The Cremona Circuit hadn’t hosted a serious worldwide bike race earlier than it hosted WorldSBK final 12 months, which means that it was troublesome to make predictions about who could be robust there.
Maybe the Italians, a few of whom had beforehand used Cremona as a apply monitor, could be ; particularly within the absence of Toprak Razgatlioglu, who had been dominating the mid-part of the season till his apply crash on the French Spherical in Magny-Cours just one week beforehand.
However, in the long run, it was Petrucci who proved unbeatable all weekend.
“Cremona, it has been actually a shock,” Petrucci instructed WorldSBK.com.
“I used to be fairly calm that day as a result of I used to be not anticipating a lot.
“Within the race, for me it was completely sudden. I assumed Nicolo [Bulega] was a lot quicker than me.
“Then, on the finish, I used to be so calm and relaxed, my bike labored completely, I used to be in entrance.
“Once I noticed on my pit board ‘0.5’ it’s like a sign, so I mentioned ‘Come on Danilo, attempt to make an even bigger hole’.”
Finally, Race 1 at Cremona was dropped at an finish by a pink flag which noticed Petrucci victorious for the primary time in WorldSBK.
“Six laps to go, I bear in mind so effectively,” he mentioned.
“I got here out from the final nook, I crossed the end line, and on the dashboard [the message] appeared ‘pink flag’.
“I began to make calculations as a result of I noticed six laps to go, however possibly the pink flag was at seven laps to go, however on the finish the race was 23 laps; so I began to make all these calculations after I was cheering to the followers.”
Petrucci’s success continued into Sunday, the Italian even stunning himself together with his pace within the 10-lap dash race on Sunday morning.
“Within the Superpole Race, the goal was to maintain the primary row of the grid, however instantly I felt and unbelievable feeling with the bike and I used to be not completely pushing,” he mentioned.
“From the second or third lap I mentioned ‘I’m using in 1:28s really easy,’ and actually I used to be simply creating a niche lap after lap.”
He added: “For Race 2, the strain was on as a result of after the second victory of the weekend all people was anticipating the third.
“To make three wins in Cremona, in Italy, with that crowd was actually like a dream.”
