Due months after fracturing his T12 vertebra in a highside during warm-up practice at Silverstone, Hiroshi Aoyama was back on track at the Brno MotoGP test on Monday. The Interwetten Honda rider did 46 laps on the Brno circuit as part of a fitness test with no apparent physical problems, however his decision to race at the upcoming Indianpolis GP August 29th is still on hold.

“Now it is two months after my crash and I am back on the bike for the first time. My feeling and my condition is better than I expected and I am very happy about that,” said the Japanese rider. “Today was more a test of my healing process improvements and how I can deal with the bike. My back is still not 100% okay and I don’t want to decide now if I will return in Indianapolis or not, I want to see how I feel tomorrow and later this week. Anyway I want to say that this test was positive for me and I am positive about my whole situation. I want to return as fast as possible.”

According to crew chief Tom Jojic, Aoyama’s lap times were surprising considering that it was the first time that he was riding the Honda MotoGP bike at Brno and his times were better than his replacement rider Alex de Angelis’ best lap during Friday’s free practice

Source | interwettenracing.com

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Interwetten Racing has now officially confirmed that Alex de Angelis will be replacing injured Hiroshi Aoyama for the next rounds of the championship. The Sammarinese will take the place of HRC test rider Kousuke Akiyoshi, who has filled in for Aoyama at Assen and this weekend’s Catalunya round.

De Angelis spent two seasons in the premier class with Fausto Gresini’s satellite Honda team and with the help of HRC the deal between Moto2 Scot Racing and Interwetten Racing went through, however De Angelis will still be wearing the colors of his current sponsors, and the colors of San Marino while riding for the Swiss team.

Daniel M. Epp, Team Owner:

“This replacement solution is satisfying for everybody. I want to underline that of course I look forward to welcome back Hiroshi fully recovered latest in Aragón in September, but as the team’s work has to go on, I am also happy that with Alex we have an experienced and powerful Honda rider, who already showed for example in Indianapolis last year what he is capable of achieving. He knows all the tracks that are coming now and I expect a lot from him.”

Alex de Angelis:

“This is a very good chance for me and I am very happy. It is a very nice team with a Honda bike. I can come back to MotoGP through this opportunity. I will compete four or five races and have enough time to improve the settings and my feeling for the bike. So it is possible to have some good results, even though it is very difficult. I will do my best not to disappoint the team. I like all the tracks that are coming now and had success on each of them and I am looking forward for this new challenge.”

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Alex De Angelis is still be unfit and has had a torrid season so far in Moto2, but Honda HRC doesn’t seem to mind, because finding riders who have experience on a 800cc MotoGP isn’t easy, so they’ve asked RSM Scot Racing to free DeAngelis and let him him replace Hiroshi Aoyama in Interewetten Racing.

Aoyama will be out of action for several months after fracturing his T12 vertebra in Silverstone’s warm-up practice and while Honda has fielded test rider Kousuke Akiyoshi, Interwetten team needs a regular rider until Aoyama returns and Alex De Angelis is a former MotoGP rider and knows the RC212V after being in team Gresini for two years.

The decision to let DeAngelis return to MotoGP starting at the Sachsenring round will be decided later this afternoon, but DeAngelis will still be sponsoring RSM Scot, even if he’ll be riding for the Swiss team.

Scot Racing has a long history with Honda and has won two World Championship titles, the first with Andrea Dovizioso in the 125cc class in 2004 and with Hiroshi Aoyama last season in the now defunct 250cc class.

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Hiroshi Aoyama suffered a massive highside during yesterday’s MotoGP warm-up practice at Silverstone, the 2009 250cc World Champion has now been diagnosed with a fracture of the T12 vertebra.

The Japanese rider was taken to the Medical Center at the circuit after the crash and the decision was made to transfer Aoyama to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, where he currently remains.

After a second CT scan this morning, the doctors informed that the injury did not get worse over night and Aoyama has the possibility to fly back to Barcelona tomorrow to get a second opinion from another specialist there. The decision which kind of treatments Aoyama will receive has not been made yet, but he will not take part at the upcoming TT Assen and several websites are reporting that he will be out of action for at least three months.

Interwetten Racing has yet to announce if they will replace Aoyama for the Assen race. More news when we get it.

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