Toni Elias to replace Hector Barbera at Laguna Seca

Pramac’s sporting director Carlo Pernat threw a curveball the other evening during an Italian sports show when he said that Roger Lee Hayden would probably be replacing injured Hector Barbera, in this weekend’s Red Bull US GP race at Laguna Seca, instead the team decision has fallen on the recently unemployed Toni Elias to ride the Desmosedici GP12.

For Elias – who left Aspar’s Moto2 after the Mugello GP – it will be return to the MotoGP class after his very dismal comeback 2011 season with LCR Honda, and it will also be a return to riding a satellite Ducati after spending 2008 with the Alice Team – now Pramac (his team mate was Sylvain Guintoli) where he stood on the podium twice, at Brno and Misano.