Ex Moto GP racer Danilo Petrucci contested his first ever Dakar Rally yesterday, but unfortunately was forced out of the race due to a mechanical issue.
The Italian made it to 115km into the stage on his work KTM, before he was forced to request an airlift after he couldn’t make the repairs to his machine.
āIt was exciting until the technical issue because I was fighting for the top five – I think I was in third position at that moment – and I was having a lot of fun because the route was very fast,ā said Petrucci.
āI had caught two of the riders in front of me, pushing for 20-30 km on full throttle and it was very cool to go up to 150km/h on flat ground.
āI will try to restart tomorrow even if I know I will not be competing for the final standings.ā