Just four teams competing in the 2008 World Championship are set to stick with their current line-ups next year, with some exciting rider moves to new teams taking place at the end of the current campaign.

All four Yamaha riders will remain with their current teams, which will provide continuity and stability for new World Champion Valentino Rossi and his talented young colleague Jorge Lorenzo at Fiat Yamaha, as with James Toseland and Colin Edwards in the Tech 3 Yamaha team.

It is a similar story for Rizla Suzuki´s Chris Vermeulen and Loris Capirossi who are set to line-up alongside each other once again on the GSV-R800, whilst Frenchman Randy de Puniet is due to continue with LCR Honda.

However, three riders will welcome new team-mates onto factory machinery when winter testing commences, with Nicky Hayden joining his friend Casey Stoner at Ducati Marlboro, Andrea Dovizioso teaming up with Dani Pedrosa at Repsol Honda and Marco Melandri looking to put his 2008 Ducati misfortune behind him alongside John Hopkins at Kawasaki.

At satellite outfit San Carlo Gresini Honda, meanwhile, Alex de Angelis stays put, with Toni Elias coming into the team to ride a works RC212V from HRC – the little Spaniard rejoining the employers he left at the end of last season.

The one new face certain to be on the 2009 grid is Yuki Takahashi, who takes the step up from the 250cc class to replace factory-bound Dovizioso in a restructured Scot Racing Team set-up.

Takahashi could possibly be joined in the battle for the Rookie of the Year title by two riders who are rumoured to be joining the Alice Team for the coming season – Finland´s Mika Kallio and Ducati´s young Italian tester Niccolo Canepa.

The satellite Ducati team should make a formal announcement on their 2009 plans at the forthcoming Polini Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix on the 17th-19th October weekend.

In addition, an increased Kawasaki and Ducati presence in the premier class next season is still a possibility. Kawasaki are still finalising rider and sponsorship plans to run a third factory Ninja ZX-RR, with an announcement expected imminently.

Sete Gibernau´s much-talked-about return to MotoGP is still apparently on the cards according to Italian and Spanish press speculation, the veteran Catalan possibly making a comeback on a fifth Ducati sponsored by Onde 2000.

With the aforementioned winter tests scheduled to get underway in the week commencing 27th October those remaining positions on the grid are likely to be finalised within the next fortnight, with any announcements sure to be followed closely by motogp.com

 

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MotoGP World Championship
Rider Standings 05/10/2008
 

Pos.	Rider	Nation	Team	Points
1	Valentino ROSSI	ITA	Fiat Yamaha Team	332
2	Casey STONER	AUS	Ducati Marlboro Team	245
3	Dani PEDROSA	SPA	Repsol Honda Team	209
4	Jorge LORENZO	SPA	Fiat Yamaha Team	182
5	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	ITA	JiR Team Scot MotoGP	145
6	Nicky HAYDEN	USA	Repsol Honda Team	131
7	Colin EDWARDS	USA	Tech 3 Yamaha	126
8	Chris VERMEULEN	AUS	Rizla Suzuki MotoGP	118
9	Shinya NAKANO	JPN	San Carlo Honda Gresini	106
10	Loris CAPIROSSI	ITA	Rizla Suzuki MotoGP	102
11	James TOSELAND	GBR	Tech 3 Yamaha	100
12	Toni ELIAS	SPA	Alice Team	91
13	Sylvain GUINTOLI	FRA	Alice Team	60
14	Alex DE ANGELIS	RSM	San Carlo Honda Gresini	55
15	Randy DE PUNIET	FRA	LCR Honda MotoGP	54
16	Marco MELANDRI	ITA	Ducati Marlboro Team	51
17	John HOPKINS	USA	Kawasaki Racing Team	50
18	Anthony WEST	AUS	Kawasaki Racing Team	46
19	Ben SPIES	USA	Rizla Suzuki MotoGP	20
20	Jamie HACKING	USA	Kawasaki Racing Team	5
21	Tadayuki OKADA	JPN	Repsol Honda Team	2