Given Randy de Puniet’s upcoming form allowing LCR Honda a massive boost this season, the team manager Lucio Cecchinello is aiming to keep the Frenchman next season and maybe even locate another competitor in MotoGP to join together, or create a Moto2 squad.

De Puniet’s ankle injury over the summer period did not allow him out of the top ten at Brno, with Cecchinello stating, “What happened in the summer was difficult to take, because we got such a good result at Donington with Randy in really good form. Nonetheless Randy did a good job in Brno showing his character and his motivation to compete. It was an excellent result as the crashes from (Mika) Kallio, (Jorge) Lorenzo and (Marco) Melandri gave us three extra positions.”

Commenting on De Puniet’s ranking in seventh spot in the championship with only six events left, Cecchinello says, “Being realistic it is going to be hard to defend that position because Randy is still not over the injury and won’t be 100% fit at the next two rounds. We are keeping our feet on the ground, but we don’t think about finishing higher than this, just defending the position if we can.”

On the future for his staff, the Italian boss explains, “Our priority is to renew the contract with Randy as soon as possible and we have set the Misano round as our deadline to finalise things. There is a willingness from both sides to sign a new contract but the process is not yet concluded.”

He adds, “Once we have things sorted with Randy we will make a decision on whether to run a second rider in MotoGP or whether to have a Moto2 team. If we do have a second MotoGP bike we want to sign a current MotoGP or 250cc rider. We will look at who is on the market once we have the first rider confirmed 100%.”