Davies amazed to get D'Antin call-up

The former 250cc rider, who now competes in the AMA Supersport 600cc series in America, was asked to make his MotoGP debut with the satellite Ducati squad at extremely short notice after Hofmann sustained a broken hand when hit by Sylvain Guintoli in the opening practice session.

Davies was thrown in at the deep end in the afternoon - having never ridden a MotoGP bike or used Bridgestone tyres prior to the official practice session.

Until this morning's Supersport practice session, he had never ridden at Laguna, so he only had 45 minutes of track time to learn the venue prior to stepping up to the unfamiliar 800cc Ducati.

"It was completely out of the blue. My heart was (doing) 220 beats a minute," Davies said.

"I didn't even have a chance to even sit on it, but fortunately I'm about the same size as Alex so I could fit into his leathers.

"I didn't even have time to adjust the levers, brakes and all that."

The 20-year-old said he enjoyed the experience, but had a lot to acclimatise to.

"It is really good. Excellent. The power is great, completely different," said Davies.

"It's weird too as it's so much lower than my 600.

"I've got to learn how well the traction control works as it's the first time I've ridden traction control. I haven't got it on my Yamaha."

Davies was slowest in practice, but was within two seconds of teammate Alex Barros, and 3.5 seconds of pacesetter Casey Stoner's factory Ducati.