16th place on Sunday's Qatar timesheets for Ducati GP17 rider Danilo Petrucci may look like a bit of a disaster.

But while the Italian's one lap speed on new tyres was lacking, he delivered a very impressive long run in which his lap time barely faded at all (see below).

Although a question mark remains as to what would have happened if he did more than 14 laps (race distance is 22), by the closing stages of the simulation Petrucci was quicker than all but Maverick Vinales.

"It was a quite complicated test," Petrucci said. "We had so many new things to try even today. The problem is that I have not spent enough time on track. As a result it was difficult to find the pace, but in the race simulation I went very well and this gives me great confidence.

"Of course I should be able to do better with the new tyre, but that does not matter if we think of the race distance. I go home with a good feeling and I'm looking forward to returning in Qatar in a week to focus only on performances."

Petrucci's race simulation was not only a boost for the Pramac team, the factory squad of Andrea Dovizioso and Jorge Lorenzo were also pleased by what they saw from the #9.

"The soft tyres gave us a lot of benefit. But also I believe that we can be competitive with the hard tyres," Lorenzo said. "Petrucci did a good simulation with the hard rear tyre, so that means the bike can also work with this tyre."

Petrucci's team-mate Scott Redding, who has the older GP16 machine, set the sixth fastest lap on the final night.

The season-opening race weekend begins at the same circuit on March 23.

Danilo Petrucci - Long Run:

1. 1m 56.324

2. 1m 55.985

3. 1m 55.846

4. 1m 55.839

5. 1m 55.835

6. 1m 55.788

7. 1m 55.739

8. 1m 55.603

9. 1m 55.682

10. 1m 55.701

11. 1m 55.705

12. 1m 55.722

13. 1m 55.683

14. 1m 55.722