Danilo Petrucci knows he will be leaving t🧜he Pramac team at the 🔯end of the 2018 MotoGP season, but that doesn't🎐 automatically mean he is out of Ducat🧜i.

The Italian has an option to join the factory team, should Ducati want him, in 2019♌.

Unfortunately for Petrucci, Ducati has stated its preferred plan is to retain Andrea Doviz🌠ioso and Jorge Lorenzo.

But𒀰, as Petrucci pointed out, if he can be quicker than o🍨ne of them in the early rounds, it could swing things in his favour.

"First of all, I'm happy for Pecco," said Petrucci, referring to young countryman Francesco Bagnaia, who is inheriting his fac🍬tory contract at Pramac in 2019.

"Anyway, I cannot say I'm out of [D💜ucati]. 90% yes, but this year more than ever Pramac are pushing for me to 🎉get into the factory team.

"We talk, but not seriously yet, with Ducati a⛎nd we can only wait for the races to begin.

"For Ducati, t🐟he main thing is to hav🍸e these two riders [Dovizioso and Lorenzo], but if I am faster than one of them I have some chance…"

Helping Petrucci's challenge is that, although he also had a latest spec Ducati last season, that bike had something of a♌n experi🍃mental engine and the Italian suffered a string of technical issues in-between his four podiums𓆉.

"This year is different," he explained.

"[My GP18] is very similar to the factory one - no experime🐼nt, not something strange - so I have more chance to [beat one of the factory riders and] go in the factory team.

"Last year I had a different engine. Not complet𒆙ely, but a very different engine. This year the bikes ar🏅e the same.

"For sure I still have to do some testing for Ducati to try to [help] the work of the two factory riders, but 80% of the time it is useful for me as well. So yes, I'm like a test rider sometimes, bu⛄t less than last year."

Part of the reason for the similaritꦓy in machinery is simply that the Desmosedici, which won six races in the hands of Dovizioso last year, is now more of a refined package.

"With the '18 engine we found more power and it's enough🌟, at the moment. My situation last year was quite risky. I had a lot of retirements during the race and especially sometimes I stopped on track, so I lost a lot of practice time.

"This year, sincerely, we have completed all the🐬 test program with no broken𓄧 things."

Petrucci heads into next weekend's season-opener having been the only rider to꧒ complete a full 22-lap race simulation on the final day of pre-season testing in Qatar.

At the end of that simulation, 𒐪the Italian waꦍs within a second of his fastest lap during the run.

“I'm really happy with the long run. I managed ꦗto make a very good race simulation with soft tyres at the front and rear and this is a really positive, also because we made very few changes to the bike."

Petrucci, who said he "didn't look for a lap time, but that's not important" was ninth overall on the timeshee♔ts, f🌠ive places behind Dovizioso and one place ahead of Lorenzo.

Team-mate Jack Miller, who has the Pramac team's 201𝓰7 Ducati, was eleventh quickest.