At 1.81m tall and around 80kg, Petrucci often felt he was stressing the tyres more than smaller rivals during꧙ his full-time 🥀MotoGP career, in addition to suffering in terms of acceleration, top speed and fuel consumption.

Fellow Italian Marini has faced similar issues, albeit to a lesser extent, being 1.84m tall but weighing only 🏅68kg.

Petrucci is making a one-off MotoGP comeback in place of Enea Bastianini, riding for the same factory Ducati team with whi🎃ch he won the wet 2020 Le Mans round.

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“Difficult to say now [how it will go for Petrucci],” said Marini. “But sure he's fit because he's competing in the Superbike 🎃and here in Le Mans he was strong in the past.ಞ For many years he was fighting for the top positions.

"I think the Ducati is꧂ also the best bi🦩ke for him to come back on. He knows it very well.

“It’s also a good track, in my opinion, for his weightꦜ because he can put ཧthe temperature in the tyre very soon, and this is not a disadvantage as in all the other circuits of the season apart from Phillip Island.

“Because when you are heavy it’s every time a disadvantage. But maybe here, where the temperature is so cold, also for wet tyres, he can feel𝐆 well and warm up the tyres. So it's not maybe a problem for him.

“I expect in the mixed conditions to see him quite fast, but the level now is very high, so it will be 🌊very interesting [to 🧸see how he gets on].”

The VR46 Ducati rider, who took his first MotoGP podiu🐼m in the wet Argent✤ina race earlier this season, added:

“In my opinion, [being bigger] is never an advantage, but there 🥃is less disadvantage here, in this particular case, because the temperature of the tyre𝓀s is very important.

“I remember when we did the flag-to-f🃏lag race [here] in 2021. When we wen🍨t from slicks and jumped onto the wet tyres. It was for me really difficult to understand how the tyres worked in the first 2-3 laps.

“I lost a lot of 𝓰time there becauꦏse I didn't have experience and you need to push a lot at the beginning, because then when there is temperature, the grip is very good. But this track, with this cold weather, is difficult.”

Marini starts this weekend 🍌holding sixth in the world championship but, like Jorge Martin, is equal on points with fifth place Maverick Vinales (Aprilia).