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Who could be Jonas Folger's last-minute 2018 MotoGP replacement?

Following the shock news that Jonas Folger will have to sit out the 2018 MotoGP season, we look at some possible replacements his Tech3 team could consider.

It was announced on Wednesday that Folger's recovery from the illness that force him to miss the end of the 2017 season had progressed slower than expected, ending his hopes of making a full recovery in time for this year.

Team boss Herve Poncharal has described the task of finding a replacement "a very difficult mission" at such short notice, given that the majority of credible candidates already have contracts for 2018.

Kohta Nozane

Yamaha test rider Nozane stood in for Folger when the German was first struck down by illness, and is the most convenient choice to replace him for 2018.

Nozane is already under contract to Yamaha, and made a good impression when he was drafted in at the eleventh hour at his home track Motegi - earning praise from Poncharal and Valentino Rossi, who tipped him to be Japan's next grand prix racing star.

But the 22-year-old is lacking in experience, and even with nine test days under his belt couldn't be expected to challenge Johann Zarco anywhere near as consistently as Folger could.

Yamaha's other tester, Katsuyuki Nakasuga, would be able to make a bigger impact, but is unlikely to want to embark on a 19-round schedule at this late stage in his career - or surrender his ambitions of an eighth All-Japan Superbike title.

Stefan Bradl

A slightly left-field choice, given Bradl's lack of any sort of existing Yamaha ties. But the ex-LCR, Forward and Aprilia MotoGP rider has two main factors going in his favour.

Firstly, like Folger he's German, and would tick an important box as far as Dorna is concerned with TV contracts. Secondly, he's very experienced, and the former Moto2 champion would probably have little trouble getting up to speed aboard the M1.

There is a hitch though, and that's Bradl's relationship with Honda. After a disastrous first season in World Superbike, he wasn't retained by the Ten Kate squad for 2018, but was offered a lifeline by HRC in the form of a MotoGP test role.

Bradl will join Hiroshi Aoyama and Takumi Takahashi at Sepang to sample the RC213V prior to the start of official testing, but can his management extricate him from that deal quickly enough to get in him in the frame at Tech 3?

Francesco Bagnaia

Emerging on the MotoGP radar as a tantalising prospect during his time as Mahindra's benchmark rider in Moto3, Bagnaia moved up several rungs in the pecking order with a superb rookie season in Moto2 last year.

So good was the Italian in 2017 - fifth overall and top rookie by a healthy margin as he rode for his mentor Valentino Rossi's Sky VR46 team - that he is already in advanced negotiations over a 2019 MotoGP promotion.

But the interested party there is Ducati's satellite team Pramac. And should Rossi be keen on embedding him in the Yamaha family instead, this is the perfect opportunity to make it happen.

Even if it turns out the Pramac 2019 ride is a done deal, Tech3 could do a lot worse than Bagnaia as far as stopgap options are concerned.

Michael van der Mark

A new recruit to the Yamaha World Superbike fold for 2017, van der Mark seemingly became the Japanese brand's go-to replacement rider in MotoGP - acting as stand-in for Rossi and then contesting two races in Folger's place.

He looked reasonably on the pace, much more so in race trim than qualifying, in his two outings, but also didn't exactly blow Tech3's other 2017 stand-ins Nozane and Broc Parkes out of the water.

Van der Mark has been long regarded as a rider of high potential, and could perhaps flourish at Tech3 if given enough time. But would the potential pay-off justify removing him from the Yamaha works Superbikes set-up, a move that would be guaranteed to significantly hobble its 2018 season?

Alex Lowes

Much like his World Superbike team-mate van der Mark, Alex Lowes' prior race experience with the Tech3 team makes him a logical candidate to take up the vacant satellite M1.

The former British Superbike champion did not disgrace himself in his two MotoGP outings as Bradley Smith's replacement in 2016, Lowes managing an impressive 13th on his debut at Silverstone.

His familiarity with the team would make slotting in easy, while his Suzuka 8 Hour wins prove he is a strong team player who wouldn't generate friction with Zarco. From a Dorna perspective, another fast British rider in MotoGP would be a boost, particularly with the British Talent Cup set to start this year.

However, with Lowes being Yamaha's best asset in WSBK, extracting him from his current deal with the Crescent team would arguably be even more difficult than getting hold of van der Mark.

Zdroj: autosport.com