IT'S GOOD being Ducati MotoGP rider Danilo Petrucci right now.
Last month he sent an entire nation into a frenzy with a spectacular maiden MotoGP win on home soil at Mugello in front of the devoted Ducati tifosi and last week it was rewarded with a renewed lucrative contract with Ducati Corse for 2020.
They say good things come in threes, so this week Danilo followed this two landmark moments by passing his motorbike riding test.
Yes, Danilo has started 127 MotoGP races alone and yet it has taken him until 2019 to get around to (legally) ride motorbikes on the road.
Of course, you don't need a licence that proves you know what traffic light signals mean to become a World Champion on the track, but we do wonder how or why it has taken Danilo this long to tick what we'd have thought was a fairly fundamental box.
Either way, congratulations to Danilo - someone send him a 'just passed' P plate and a furry dice....
Da oggi posso guidare le moto anche in strada.
From today I can ride bikes on the road too. pic.twitter.com/xfr37I3zcl— Danilo Petrucci (@Petrux9) July 9, 2019
We do have some slightly awkward questions for the Ducati PR team though as it made a big promotional push prior to the Italian MotoGP with a special 'Road to Mugello' feature in which Petrucci, together with Michele Pirro and Andrea Dovizioso, traversed the Futa Pass in Tuscany to soak up the stunning Italian scenery on some stunning Italian thoroughbred Ducati machinery.
So we wonder, did Danilo in fact not reach his destination on two wheels? Is the man behind the visor on these videos a 'stunt double'? Are PR companies massaging the truth? We feign shock.
"It's always very nice, every year I arrive at Mugello in a different way! Last year in a Lamborghini, this year on the Multistrada. It was very nice, I'd never tried the bike and we went on a great road coming here..." Petrucci said at the time. Our eyebrows are raised...
We'll file this under 'nudge, nudge, wink, wink' but at least this solves a headache for the PR team at Ducati going forward.
Wonder what his insurance is when your first motorbike is (presumably) a Ducati Panigle V4 R?
