Petrucci battered, bruised but feeling better
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Danilo Petrucci was worried he wouldn’t be able to race in this weekend’s Malaysian MotoGP, following his dramatic early-race exit at Phillip Island on Sunday.The factory Ducati star took a heavy impact to his ankle and hip when he was launched from his machine at Turn 2, bringing down Fabio Quartararo as he landed.”On Sunday night, I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to race [at Sepang] and I spent Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning in a hospital in Melbourne getting checked,” Petrucci said in Malaysia on Thursday.”Fortunately the situation has improved day-by-day. There was nothing broken but there is a very bad ankle sprain, some contusion on the bones and a lot of pain.”I am having the most pain on the upper ankle and it’s difficult to bend it. For this reason I was struggling to walk. I have some bruises [on my hip] from where I hit Fabio. But it could have been much worse physically.”Some TV angles suggested possible contact between Petrucci and Marc Marquez as the field funnelled into Turn 2.”I talked with Marc, and I’ve checked the images, because I don’t really understand what happened. For sure me and Marc couldn’t do anything. Iannone, Marc and me were all side-by-side,” Petrucci said.”Marc wasn’t a problem for me because when I released the brake the bike flipped without throttle. I don’t remember touching Marc so it would mean that [if there was contact that] it wasn’t hard.”Maybe the hard rear tyre [was a factor]. But we checked the data compared to Andrea [Dovizioso] and the temperature was lower for him, so maybe in that part of the track it was very dirty because Fabio lost the bike in the same way.”I had some lean angle, but we don’t understand what happened so maybe it was dirt on the track.”I’m sad how the race went because it was maybe a top five finish. I was always fighting in the front in Phillip Island all weekend.”Looking ahead to this weekend’s Sepang event, Petrucci will be aiming to secure his first top six since the summer break, at a track where he was fastest in pre-season testing.”4″The test was good and hopefully we can be competitive here this weekend,” he said. “The situation has changed but the good thing is that we’re not far from our setup like when we tested here.”We didn’t change a lot at Phillip Island so the feeling with the bike is back. I can’t wait to get on the bike tomorrow and make sure everything is ok.”Petrucci is currently fifth in the world championship, seven points behind Maverick Vinales and six clear of Quartararo.The trio, who all failed to finish at Phillip Island, are pursuing Alex Rins for third in the final standings.
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