Danilo Petrucci got a taste of what to expect as a factory Ducati rider next season when he was handed an extensive range of new parts to try at Monday's Catalunya MotoGP test.

With the official Ducati team of Barcelona race winner Jorge Lorenzo and team-mate Andrea Dovizioso skipping the test, Petrucci was the only GP18 rider on track - and got to try new exhausts, a new gearbox, new chassis and new swingarm!

Some were parts the factory team had already tried - "I think Lorenzo has this exhaust, and maybe Dovi" - but others, such as the swingarm, were being used for the first time.

Rider Ratings - Catalunya MotoGP Video of Rider Ratings - Catalunya MotoGP CrashTV: Video Thumbnail:

Unfortunately, Petrucci's test was cut two-hours short when a lowside at Turn 9 ended with the Italian rolling heavily through the gravel trap.

That occurred on his 41st lap, while trying the swingarm.

"I think the swingarm, I was the first rider to try and the first to crash!" Petucci said.

His humour was all the more admirable given he was clearly battered by the accident.

"It was a lowside at Turn 9. But when I arrived at the gravel, there is always a little step between the grass and the gravel, and I start to go round, round, round, and at that moment I felt some pain in my finger.

"Then I started to feel very very bad with my feet, but no fractures, so that's important, even if my foot is getting bigger and bigger, and the Clinica Mobile suggested a CAT scan for the tendon. But it's OK, nothing serious. I hope.

"It was a bit of a shame, because I was trying the new swingarm. Still we have to compare it with the old one, but this morning was so useful, because I tried one set of new exhausts, a new gearbox, new chassis.

"Some were old things that the Ducati factory team already has, but I found some interesting things, and we will see if I receive this stuff."

Indeed, with three GP18 riders to supply, each requiring three of each part (one for each of rider's two bikes, plus a spare), Petrucci doesn't know if or when he will get to race the upgrades.

"It's not my choice. Ducati are working so hard, and I don't know at the moment if I will receive them. I would like to, sincerely, because the gearbox and the exhaust especially make the exit of the corner very, very smooth.

"It's something which me and Lorenzo have been asking for, for more than one year, because in the middle of the corner we need the engine more smooth."

Pressed further on the new gearbox, Petrucci explained:

"The torque, when you release the brake and take the throttle, it's more smooth.

"Because when you brake, the torque [from the gearbox] is negative, then you take the throttle and the torque starts to be positive, and in that point it's more smooth, which means that the bike moves less in the middle of the corner, and slides less."

Petrucci had then completed '7 or 8' laps with the new swingarm, when the accident occurred.

"I'm so sorry, because it was my first test to try new things for the Ducati factory, and the most important thing, (the swingarm) I crashed with.

"But we can already see the difference, and we had tested the majority of the things, but unfortunately I crashed and missed the last two hours, because it was in our mind to finish at four o'clock.

"Fortunately I'm OK. And I am happy, because I was even quite fast."

Despite the premature end, Petrucci's best lap was good enough for fourth overall on the timesheets, 0.572s from Honda's Marc Marquez.

And although Lorenzo has grabbed all the headlines with victories at the last two rounds, it is his 2019 replacement Petrucci who is now the leading Ducati rider in the world championship, in fifth overall.

"In the championship, I'm the first Ducati, but in the last two races, Lorenzo made the difference.

"At the moment we don't know how it's possible that Lorenzo stops the bike better than me and Dovizioso.

"But the problem yesterday is that I overheated the front tyre when I was behind Pedrosa.

"Assen is a different track, different temperature, so we'll see.

"Maybe we will have this problem in another circuit, but it's the first time we have this problem with the front tyre."