Ducati new-boy Cal Crutchlow has explained the reasons behind his turn-eight crash during the second day of MotoGP testing at Valencia, saying he was seeing how deep he could hold on to the brakes.

The British rider had been asked by his crew to experiment with how long he could hold on to the front brake with the Desmosedici on its side and added that it was all good information for new Ducati Corse boss Gigi Dall'Igna to take away with him.

"I went down at turn eight. I seemed to make the corner very square, like a point, the lap before and it worked perfectly. The lap after, I tried to make it like a Yamaha and it didn't turn. But that's about trial and error. They wanted me to see if I could put the bike in, turn and release the brake. I did and it didn't work but I had hardly any brake left on," said Crutchlow, speaking at Valencia.

"We have looked at the data and we didn't do much wrong. Corner-speed wise we would be a lot slower than my previous bike, but that's where we need to work. I am stopping too early but if you stop later, the bike won't turn. I think we are stopping in the correct place, with the correct distance but you can't enter the corner like we want."

In terms of laptimes, Crutchlow spent a lot of time trying different settings to increase grip and then went very left-field with a setup after crew chief Daniele Romagnoli had an idea.

"We didn't go as fast as we did yesterday but I think we found something right at the end of the day. We changed a lot and today wasn't about going fast. We put the bike up, down, left, right and I did the same laptime, every time and I had the same feeling with everything we did.

"But that is good information for Gigi. My guys wanted to change the Ducati as much as possible to see what it did, but it did nothing. At the end of the day, we changed the bike really drastically and we seem to have found something there. It was a compromise as I had lots of rear grip but no front grip and I crashed but now we know the limit.

"We tried to make the bike a little bit more like what I have been used to and it worked, but we never had the front feeling we wanted. We had the same as I had on my previous bike, but never able to turn into the corner properly. We crashed, but I know we have gone in the right direction. I am confident we could have been in the mid-31s. That lap was a lot faster than any others, I just didn't finish it.

"We did our fastest time on the lap before the crash with 30 laps on the tyre, so that is positive because we changed the bike to get more rear grip but lost some front. I am impressed with how it stops but I am still making mistakes with shifting gears.

"There were some laps where we were riding around in the 1'38s but we were testing some stuff for Gigi. It's all information for him. The communication with him is good and when you work with him, you realise what a good engineer he is.'

Crutchlow is confident that he can get on the podium next year but said it would be easier with the new bike that will make its debut at Sepang in February.

"Can I get on the podium in the first third of the year? Very difficult. Do I believe I can get podiums? Yes. In the moment, this bike is one and a half seconds a lap average slower, which is what Dovi and Nicky were doing all season."