[kropotkin thinks...] - Hector Barbera to Replace Andrea Iannone, Mike Jones in for B

[Ninjette Newsbot]

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Three days after announcing that they would not be replacing the injured Andrea Iannone, the factory Ducati squad have changed their mind. On Thursday, the Bologna factory announced that Hector Barbera would be taking Iannone's place in the factory Ducati team, while Barbera's slot in the Avintia Ducati MotoGP team will be taken by Australian rider Mike Jones.

The decision was forced upon Ducati by Dorna and IRTA. Under the FIM regulations, teams must make "every reasonable effort" to replace an absent rider, with only force majeure (or exceptional circumstances beyond their control) acceptable as a reason to leave a seat empty. The series organizers clearly believed that force majeure did not apply in this case, as Iannone's decision to skip the race was due to an injury picked up at Misano, five weeks ago.