There is finally some light at the end of the tunnel for KTM at the Losail International Circuit, according to satellite rider Danilo Petrucci, after the Austrian manufacturer finally made a breakthrough on the opening day of practice for the second round in two weeks at the Qatari circuit.
KTM has struggled at Losail since pre-season testing kicked off there at the beginning of March, with its best result in last weekend’s Qatar Grand Prix coming from Miguel Oliveira in 11th.
However, things are finally looking up, according to Petrucci, after a strong opening day of practice for the Doha Grand Prix.
He finished in 12th on combined times, one place behind Oliveira, which makes it his best finishing place to date this year and a welcome relief after last week’s disastrous race, which ended with a crash at only the second corner.
Making radical changes to his RC16 and believed by The Race’s sources to be running a new chassis (something KTM are uniquely able to do thanks to their tubular steel frame construction), Petrucci confirmed the story when questioned about it at the end of the day.
“I don’t know how you know this,” Petrucci told The Race.
“But you are right! We are exploring a bit with the bike, and it works. I’m happy, but not satisfied, because when you lose a top ten place for half a tenth of a second…!
“But I’m happy about the speed and especially the consistency. We were happy from the start of the day, from the beginning of FP1, and we have to continue like this now.
“From the start of testing I’ve never used the same bike two days, I’ve always had something different.
“It’s the first time that KTM has ever had a rider like me, with my weight, and they’re trying something different for me. I’m not satisfied, but let’s say that it’s the best day that we’ve had so far on this track.”
He wasn’t the only KTM rider to finish yesterday upbeat either, with the factory duo of Brad Binder and Miguel Oliveira both finally admitting that they believe the worst of KTM’s woes at the desert circuit are behind them.
“I feel much better stopping the bike, on corner entry, and the turning is a little better,” said Binder.
“It’s the first day that I’ve been in touch with my problems. It’s definitely a little bit more positive. All over, the guys have done a good job this week and my bike is working better.
“The really annoying this is that I felt like I was really ready to make a good drop, but I had two issues that were out of my control in FP2 and they really hurt my chances of getting into FP2.
“One tyre was like riding on ice, and the other had a big jump on it and didn’t work at all.”
Binder’s team-mate Oliveira had a newfound optimism about the team’s progress as well, which will come as a welcome relief to team management after some scathing remarks from the Portuguese racer after last weekend’s race.
However, while Oliveira was pleased about his progress to date, he also admitted that there’s still some room left to go to find the form that he needs to get back to the sharp end – something that’s still looking unlikely for KTM until MotoGP returns to Europe later this month.
“It was a more positive Friday than the last one, but I’m still not happy I didn’t go directly to Q2 because we had a chance today,” Oliveira said.
“The team was really motivated from the afternoon, we’ve got a couple of things to try FP4 to get some more out of the bike, and we’ll give our best shot in Q1.”
