How Petrucci’s return happened in a year ‘not even Hitchcock could script’

Gentle giant Petrucci was a mainstay of the MotoGP paddock from 2012, when he debuted on the underpowered and underfunded Ioda Project CRT machine, steadily lifting himself up through the grid.

Literally going from last to first, by way of Ioda, Pramac Ducati and then the factory Ducati squad – with whom he won two races – Petrucci’s story is as heartwarming as his infectious laugh and penchant for a good yarn.

All of this made him a paddock favourite, as was demonstrated by the outpouring of support he got on the grid of his final MotoGP race with Tech3 KTM in Valencia last year.

Petrucci confirmed to Motorsport.com in June of 2021 that he was eyeing a move into rally raids, starting with the Dakar. That did come to pass, but his journey since Valencia 2021 to this weekend’s Thailand GP is quite extraordinary.

As the man himself put it on Thursday at Buriram, having arrived in Thailand from Alabama on Wednesday morning having left on Monday at 6am: “I simply can’t explain how emotional I am because not even an Alfred Hitchcock story could have had me racing the Dakar with KTM, then I go to USA with Ducati and then coming here with Suzuki – I don’t think no one has ever done this!”

Petrucci made his Dakar debut in January of this year with KTM. During his pre-event training in Dubai, he injured his ankle and his Dakar dream already looked in doubt as doctors advised him to not ride.

But a bit of perseverance meant Petrucci – who’d ridden just six days on his KTM Dakar bike instead of the three weeks he was meant to in training – did make it to the Saudi Arabian desert in time for the event.

Except, just a few days before it was due to get underway, his hopes were almost dashed again. He tested positive for the COVID-19 virus. But on the night before the 2021 Dakar Rally began, he returned a negative PCR test and his debut was back on.

But, a day into the Dakar he suffered a bike problem. Unable to fix the issue himself, because he’d lost his phone, wallet and passport on the stage before, he had to signal for official assistance – which stung him with a time penalty that effectively meant he was out of the running. He was able to get back into the event to at least tally up some miles. Despite a crash with a camel – which caused some issues at the Saudi embassy when he went to get his passport back, having said to the media he wanted to kill the…