Bradl signs for Aprilia till end of season

German rider Stefan Bradl will fill the vacuum left by Italian Marco Melandri and ride for Aprilia in the MotoGP championship till the end of the season, the Italian outfit announced on Saturday.

Bradl, who will team up with Spaniard Alvaro Bautista for the first of the nine remaining races at Indianapolis next weekend, had been riding for the Yamaha Forward team.

However, their team boss Giovanni Cuzari was arrested following the last race in Germany and is facing charges in Switzerland of suspected corruption of a public official, and money laundering through sponsorship activities.

As a result Yamaha Forward have decided to opt out of the Indianapolis leg of the championship and wait for clarification of their financial status.

Bradl, who is yet to replicate in MotoGP the success he had in Moto2 when he was crowned world champion in 2011, sat out the German MotoGP with a broken bone in his right hand.

Melandri also missed the race after being fired by Aprilia for poor results.

By contrast Bradl's team-mate at Yamaha Forward, Frenchman Loris Baz finds himself without a ride following the team's decision to cease racing activity.