Sete Gibernau’s Ducati squad quits MotoGP

Sete Gibernau’s Grupo Francisco Hernando Ducati squad has withdrawn from the MotoGP world championship with immediate effect.

The Spanish squad, run by former 125GP racer Pablo Nieto, is the latest high profile victim of the global economic crisis.

Though like Kawasaki earlier this year, its decision to quit ahead of next weekend’s German GP at the Sachsenring is still a big shock. Rumours have circulated the paddock for weeks about the future of Gibernau’s squad and its future.

The team is known to have struggled to secure extra sponsorship to continue during 2009, yet there was little hint after the last race in Laguna Seca that the team was on the brink of closure.

The team was launched in a blaze of publicity during the Valencia GP at the end of last season, with Gibernau stepping out of retirement to make a shock return to racing for the first time since 2006.

But the 36-year-old has struggled to make a big impact on his return to action, scoring just 12-points with a best finish of 11th place in his home race in Jerez.

He has also been blighted again by collarbone injuries that dogged him throughout 2006. Gibernau, who twice ran Valentino Rossi close in the world title fight in 2003 and ’04, won nine premier class races and his last podium came at the Sachsenring in 2005.

The Grupo Francisco Hernando Ducati team’s decision to quit almost certainly means the end of Gibernau’s career and leaves MotoGP with only 17 bikes on the grid for the remaining nine races of the season.