Danilo Petrucci: “I felt like someone stabbed my shoulder”

Danilo Petrucci has admitted he feared crashing out in the Superpole Race due to suffering with pain at the Misano WorldSBK round.

Petrucci, who on Friday believed he was free of any pain, quickly found it difficult despite managing to hook up some very good results.

Speaking ahead of the weekend, Petrucci, who was to be re-assed after FP1 said: “I’m really happy to be here. I have no big injuries left so I’m almost feeling 100%. I still need a bit of time but I’m really happy to be around in this paddock again.

“I try to ride my bike again after a few days. It’s quite difficult to accept because 95% of the body’s okay but I have quite a lot of pain in my right shoulder.

“This puts me in trouble when I brake; I feel a lot of pain when I brake. When I release the brake and I’m on the straight, I don’t feel any pain.

“It’ll be a big achievement if I can make it through the weekend. My target is to race all three races and finish them. I can’t say whether I can even make it to the end of Race 1. I have no big expectations.”

Making it through the weekend is exactly what Petrucci did as he battled through discomfort to claim P9 in Race 1.

This came after two practice sessions on Friday where he was feeling good.

Reviewing Friday at Misano, Petrucci added: “On Friday morning, I was feeling quite good, and not in a lot of pain. At the beginning of the first session, I was okay.

“The feeling with the bike was not as good as the test we did in May. At the end of the session, I started to feel a bit of pain.

“At the end of the first session, I was quite in trouble, so we decided to skip the first half of FP2. It’s always hard to imagine the pain you’re going to feel, so when you feel pain regarding the shoulder, it’s always much more than expected.

“I’m struggling a lot with my shoulder. With a fracture, everything is stable, but there’s a big inflammation.

“The more you use it, the more you use the muscles and tendons and so on, the more the situation gets worse.

“I’ll try to make the Superpole and see if I can feel better tomorrow morning and make it to Race 1.”

But as Saturday went on, and leading into Sunday, Petrucci was unconvinced he could make it through the full weekend.

Ninth again in the Superpole Race, the former MotoGP rider dug extremely deep in race 2 as he moved up the order to claim sixth.

Petrucci told WorldSBK.com: “It’s unbelievable. I didn’t expect to be here. I think, after yesterday, I thought there’d be something wrong. I didn’t know how I did it yesterday!

“This morning, I woke up, and I didn’t know how I’d make it through two races. In the Superpole Race, the start wasn’t really good. I was worried about crashing.

“A lot of riders overtook me, but they were really aggressive on each other, so they crashed into each other. I found myself in ninth place after a few laps and said, ‘oh, perfect!’.

“In Race 2, when I left the pits for the first time, I braked at Turn 4 and felt a lot of pain. I joined the starting grid and said to my team, ‘maybe I do a few laps and see’. It felt like a knife into my shoulder. I had a really good start.

“The first few corners were okay, and I was able to keep the pace, even if it was really painful. I saw Bassani not far ahead, so I went with him because we were trying to make a gap to the riders behind.

“He was in trouble, and I was able to pass him, but the last four laps were a nightmare. I switched my mind but when I crossed the finish line, I felt like someone had stabbed my right shoulder. I was in pain.

“It’s an incredible feeling because it was really painful, but at the same time, I remembered that after the crash that the doctor said, ‘I don’t know if you’ll be able to go on the bike again’, and after two months, I finished sixth. It was a mixed feeling between pain and joy; something that makes me cry!”