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Alex de Angelis latest ex-MotoGP rider to join 2019 MotoE field

Former MotoGP rider Alex de Angelis will return to grand prix racing next season with the Pramac Racing MotoE team.

De Angelis is a veteran of 61 premier class starts, and had one outing with Pramac in 2013 when Andrea Iannone was injured.

His last MotoGP season in 2015, with the now-defunct Ioda team, was curtailed by injuries from a serious crash at Motegi.

The 34-year-old Italian, a race winner at 250cc/Moto2 level, made a trio of starts in the intermediate category late last year as an injury substitute but in 2018 he switched to a rider coach role for Federico Fuligni.

De Angelis will now return to competitive action in 2019 as he takes on the all-new five-round MotoE World Cup electric series.

He is joined in the two-bike Pramac team by Australian racer Josh Hook, who claimed the 2017/18 FIM Endurance World Championship title back in July in the Suzuka 8 Hours.

"I'm excited to be part of this project and I'm very pleased to be back on this team with which I've already had a very happy experience in Laguna Seca in 2013," said de Angelis.

"It's a very professional team and I'm sure they can give me that extra help to do well.

"I've been off the track for a year now and that's why I'm so keen to get back on track at Jerez - it's going to be a good break-in for me and for the new bike."

One of Hook's 2017/18 EWC team-mates, Freddy Foray, will also race in MotoE next season at Tech3, having been confirmed this week alongside Spanish Moto2 regular Hector Garzo.

Other riders already signed up for the new series include Bradley Smith, Xavier Simeon, Randy de Puniet and Sete Gibernau, who is coming out of retirement to race for the Pons squad.

Zdroj: autosport.com