Scot Honda quit MotoGP

Only 17 bikes will contest the 2010 MotoGP world championship after the cash-strapped Scot Honda squad confirmed it has abandoned plans to race in the premier class next season.

The Italian team had missed several deadlines to order an RC212V machine off Honda for 2010 and it has finally decided to focus its effort entirely on the new Moto2 600cc world championship.

The decision leaves Alex de Angelis facing an uncertain future. 

The Scot squad was his only chance of remaining in MotoGP after he was axed by the Gresini Honda squad earlier this season. 

It was thought a deal was close to find a sponsor to keep the San Marino rider on the grid, but Cirano Mularoni said: “After the happiness for the conquest of the world championship in the 250cc class for me and for the whole team this is a great disappointment. There is no reward for all the work done over the years. Now we just have to concentrate on the project Moto2”

HRC boss Shuhei Nakamoto confirmed to MCN yesterday in Valencia that the initial ordering deadline for teams to secure an RC212V expired in Brno in late August.

Honda kept extending the deadline having agreed to expand its involvement to seven bikes next season.

But Nakamoto said: “We couldn’t keep waiting. We had given them plenty of time.”