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Yonny Hernandez looks set to miss the final round of MotoGP at Valencia, as the Colombian continues his recovery from injury. Hernandez suffered a dislocated collarbone in a crash during the race at Motegi, an injury which forced him to miss both the Malaysian and the Australian rounds of MotoGP.

The place of Hernandez in the BQR Avintia team is to be taken at Valencia by Hiroshi Aoyama. The last ever 250 World Champion suffered a difficult 2012 season in World Superbikes with the Ten Kate Honda squad, Aoyama never getting comfortable with the Pirelli tires used in WSBK. Aoyama has been looking to return to MotoGP since the latter part of this season, the Japanese rider spotted in serious talks with a number of teams at the Aragon round of MotoGP at the end of September. Aoyama now looks set to take the place of Hernandez in the BQR Avintia team permanently in the 2013 season, according to Spanish website Motocuatro.com.

Aoyama could be one of two Japanese riders in the premier class in 2013, with Ryuichi Kyonari looking likely to take the place of Michele Pirro in the Gresini Honda squad. Both men will be riding FTR-framed machines, with Aoyama on the FTR Kawasaki with BQR, while Kiyonari will be racing an uprated version of the FTR Honda used by Pirro this season. Kiyonari could also start work on development of Honda's RC213-based production racer, though much uncertainty surrounds whether that bike - suggested by Honda in response to the CRT rules - will actually be produced or not. A decision on that has still not been taken by Honda.

Hernandez looks likely to move to Paul Bird's PBM squad, where he will probably race an Aprilia ART machine. Dorna is keen to keep Hernandez in the series, as the young Colombian has been very useful in promoting the sport in South America, and his spectacular riding style has been a genuine crowd-pleaser. Paul Bird had hoped to field an all-British team, with two British riders on a British-built bike, but with Bradley Smith moving up to MotoGP alongside Cal Crutchlow, that would have put four British riders on the grid. Dorna is currently engaged in trying to broaded the mixture of nationalities on the grid, as a better mixture helps with the sales of TV rights across the globe. The preponderance of riders from just a handful of nations - for 2013, it looks likely that there will be five Spaniards, four Italians, three Americans and three British riders on the grid - is something the Spanish organizer of MotoGP is trying to combat.

King of the Island

His predecessor: Mick Doohan took the RC213V out for a spin at the Island

It's been two very, very long years at Ducati for Valentino Rossi

Stefan Bradl has had a good rookie year in MotoGP

Monster!

Ben Spies missed Phillip Island. At least that meant he couldn't suffer any more bad luck there

Guy Coulon - One reason Andrea Dovizioso is so fast

There is plenty of non-Spanish talent coming up through the ranks: Danny Kent is another fast young Briton

Cal Crutchlow, now with added beard

Leading CRT - Aleix Espargaro has fought all season long with his teammate Randy De Puniet, and so far come out on top

Hitting the big time

Australian Moto3 champion Linc Gilding acquitted himself admirably on his introduction to the world stage

Another fast Aussie: Arthur Sissis hit the podium at his home race

Appeasing the gods of motorcycling

With no testing and little support, James Ellison has done surprisingly well

It's good to be the champ, part I

It's good to be the champ, part II

It takes concentration ....

... to earn a celebration

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Jules Cluzel has signed to race with the FIXI Crescent Suzuki squad in World Superbikes for 2013. The deal, announced two days' ago, sees the young Frenchman move up from the World Supersport class in which he made an impressive debut in 2012. Cluzel had switched to the WSBK paddock after losing his ride in Moto2, despite a similarly impressive year with the NGM Forward team in 2011.

Cluzel takes the place of another Frenchman, Sylvain Guintoli having backed out of a deal he had already agreed to to ride with the team. Guintoli now looks likely to race for a semi-factory Ducati team to be run by Francis Batta. After Althea announced they were breaking their ties with Ducati earlier this week, Ducati has been in talks to put a structure in place to allow them to contest the 2013 World Superbike season. According to GPOne.com, those talks could be concluded as early as Thursday, with former Alstare Suzuki - and before that, Alstare Ducati - boss Francis Batta once again taking over the reins and running the team. Batta has been in talks with Guintoli about joining a team, and is very positive about the Frenchman, praising his talent, his experience with the Ducati and his language skills.

The signing of Cluzel and the addition of Guintoli brings the provisional World Superbike grid up to around 19 riders, though several of the teams and riders are still provisional. If Alstare were to get more direct factory support from Ducati, that would mean there would be two factory-backed teams in World Superbikes, Aprilia and Kawasaki, three ostensibly private teams with very strong factory support, in Ten Kate Honda, BMW Italia and Alstare Ducati, and Suzuki as the fifth manufacturer represented, though the Crescent team receives virtually no support from Suzuki.

Below is the rider line up as we believe it will be so far:

Below is the press release from FIXI Crescent Suzuki announcing Cluzel's signing:

CLUZEL SIGNS FOR FIXI CRESCENT SUZUKI

Team Suzuki Press Office - October 29.

Frenchman Jules Cluzel will be joining the FIXI Crescent Suzuki World Superbike Championship team to race a Suzuki GSX-R1000 in 2013

Cluzel has signed for the team fresh from success in the World Supersport Championship, where he took a total of eight podiums, including four victories, on his way to runner-up in the title race. Cluzel showed consistency throughout the 2012 season and ended the year by taking victory in his home race at Magny-Cours in France.

The 24-year-old hails from Montlucon in Central France and competed in his first motorcycle championship in 2004, before moving up to the National series the following year, where he secured second in the championship in his rookie season. Cluzel then made the move to the 250cc World Championship and in 2009 he scored his first GP podium at Qatar and was also awarded the Michel Metraux Trophy as best privateer that season. Cluzel recorded his first Grand Prix victory in 2010 when he won at Silverstone in England, on his way to seventh overall in the Moto2™ Championship. For this season he made the step into the Supersport paddock, where the experience he had gained from the 600cc machines in Moto2 stood him in very good stead and he was able to adapt to the series quickly and successfully, something that FIXI Crescent Suzuki will be hoping he emulates in the move up to Superbikes.

FIXI Crescent Suzuki is excited at the chance of working with one of the brightest young stars to move up from World Supersport and the signing of Cluzel completes the team's rider line-up, after Leon Camier was recently confirmed with the squad for next year. The team had strongly considered Josh Waters for the ride, following a positive test in Spain recently. FIXI Crescent Suzuki is disappointed that two-into-one doesn't go and greatly appreciates the support from Waters, and also Suzuki Australia, at the test and hopes that the opportunity to work together again arises in the near future.

Cluzel will get his first taste of the Yoshimura-powered Suzuki GSX-R at a test in Spain in January, with the first race of the season scheduled for Sunday February 24th at Phillip Island in Australia.

Jules Cluzel:

"I am really excited to be joining the FIXI Crescent Suzuki team. It is a big step in my career, but one that I am very happy to take. When I was given the option to work with Suzuki in World Superbikes, I did not need to think about it twice and I just said a big "Yes!" straight away. I am really motivated by the whole project and I know that this is what I want. I will make sure I'm totally ready for the first race and plan to learn not only quickly, but also intelligently. I cannot wait to start work and I am also really pleased to be working with an English team. I now just want to get on the bike and see how it goes, do my best and challenge for some good results."

Paul Denning - Team Principal:

"Securing Leon's team-mate for 2013 hasn't exactly been the smoothest process, but in the end we couldn't be happier with the result! Jules is young, fast and aggressive and has shown that he can adapt to new bikes and new championships very quickly. His 250GP and Moto2 experience provides an understanding and feeling for stiffer, less forgiving 'race-bikes' which the WSBK machines have developed into, and we anticipate a quick transition to the GSX-R. Any rider who has won a Moto2 race - and finished ahead of riders like Stefan Bradl and Scott Redding in the Championship standings - and then come to such a competitive series as World Supersport and just missed out on becoming Champion in his first year, clearly has a great talent - we are excited to have Jules with us!

"Importantly, Jules has shown his commitment and is very excited to be with FIXI Crescent Suzuki in WSBK for 2013 - it's nice to create a partnership where both sides are equally committed and share the same targets. The team is doing absolutely everything it can to make sure that the competitive base of the GSX-R, which we found towards the end of 2012, is taken forward so that we can provide Leon and Jules with machinery worthy of their talent."

Valentino Rossi spoke on Sunday of the frustration he has suffered over the past two years with Ducati. After two years with the iconic Italian factory, the gap to the front runners remains the same, and the problems Rossi noted at the first test in Valencia 2010 are still there. Now, he told the press, his focus is on riding the Yamaha M1 again, to assess just what the damage of his two years at Ducati has been. Whether any of the riders heading to Ducati for 2013 would be able to master the Ducati was still open, Rossi said.

The Italian was philosophical after the race at Phillip Island, having finished a mediocre seventh, some 37 seconds behind the winner at a track where Rossi once won five years in a row. He brushed off the question of whether the result was a bad one or not with a quip. "I expected more! Yesterday, I was 2 seconds behind, 2 seconds for 27 laps, I expect 54 seconds! So was a good race," Rossi joked.

Rossi's previous record at Phillip Island was outstanding, but even after two years on the bike, Rossi said, he still failed to understand how come Casey Stoner was so successful on the Ducati where everyone else failed. "Casey was the only one rider who could be fast with the Ducati," Rossi told reporters. "All the other guys that tried have destroyed, not his career but his mind... So congratulations to Casey. But two years ago, I still don't understand why there is this difference between Stoner and the other Ducati riders, and after two years that I ride the Ducati I still don't understand." Rossi did not believe his time on the Ducati had caused him the same problems, however. When asked if the experience had, in his own words, destroyed his mind, Rossi replied "I don't think so. Especially because I have another chance."

His time with Ducati, which had been heralded as a match made in heaven between two Italian icons, the legendary Ducati brand and the nine-time World Champion Valentino Rossi, had been much tougher than he had hoped for. "It was very tough, very difficult two seasons," Rossi said. The most difficult part had been the lack of progress made, despite the many changes made to the Ducati. Rossi characterized the period as "especially very frustrating." Little had changed in the last two years, Rossi said. "The bigger frustration, apart from the bad results and the bad feeling, is that more or less we have the same problem with this bike after two years that we had in Valencia in 2010. And sometimes you have the feeling that you waste your time. This is the bigger frustration."

Despite his frustration, saying goodbye to the people at Ducati would be hard, Rossi added. "I think it will be very emotional at Valencia, because I find a good atmosphere and good people to work with and to make the race together. And I always make a group with my team, not for choice, but because it's like this, maybe it's my character, and for sure will be very hard to say ciao to the guys. But at the same time, you know, we are not able to achieve any good result, so is a good decision for me, and I cannot wait to ride the M1." Despite his results on the Ducati, Rossi felt his career had not lost its shine. This was the first wrong career choice he had made, Rossi told reporters. "In all my career, I never miss a choice. Now I miss one choice. "

Rossi admitted that he was nervous about going back to Yamaha, despite being sure of his decision. "I think I can give to Yamaha a very important support to improve the bike. I am sure of this 100%. Because between me and Yamaha was the perfect match, in the way to work and to improve the bike. I'm not sure if I'm able to stay at the same level as Lorenzo and Pedrosa, and fight for win races and for win championships, you know? Sincerely, I don't know, so I have to try the bike before. But we have two years, and if we want to try, the test in Valencia will be very important to understand, but after we have to work, my team have to give the maximum, Jeremy [Burgess] have to give the maximum, everybody have to give 100% for improve, fix the problems, improve our level, to fight, especially with Lorenzo on the same bike, that now is the world champion."

The advantage Rossi had was that he was returning to Yamaha as the number two rider, a position which gives him much more freedom. "You know, we are number two. And usually the number one is in the more difficult position, because the number one - in this case Lorenzo and Pedrosa - was like me with Lorenzo in 2008 and 2009. If you arrive in front, OK, is normal. But if you arrive behind suddenly you have some problems."

The question of which of the new bunch of riders would do best on the Desmosedici intrigued Rossi as much as any outside observer. Andrea Dovizioso had a proven track record, while Andrea Iannone had no expectations created by having spent time on a Japanese bike. Ben Spies could also be an interesting prospect on the bike, in Rossi's assessment."I think is interesting also waiting for Spies, but with the injury, I think we have to wait until next year. First, is interesting to understand Dovi and Iannone compared to Hayden. And also to understand between Dovi and Iannone, because Dovi have more experience on the MotoGP, on the other hand, Iannone have no experience of MotoGP, but never ride a Honda and Yamaha. Maybe can be a small advantage, I don't know. I'm not sure of this. But can be different. Because for sure the Japanese bikes are different to ride, and Iannone coming from Moto2, never ride the Japanese bikes, so his mind is more open, empty," Rossi said.