Czech Republic rider Karel Abraham has signed a two-year deal to remain in MotoGP with the Avintia Ducati team.

Abraham will replace the lacklustre Xavier Simeon in the squad until the end of 2020 and will partner Tito Rabat who has yet to be offically announced.

“I’m very happy to continue in Motogp next year and would like to thanks for this opportunity to Reale Avintia Racing Team. We signed in Silverstone because it was very important for me to finalise every detail of the contract in order to get competitive machinery," said Abraham.

"This worked out also thanks to a big help of Luigi Dall’Igna and Paolo Ciabatti from Ducati factory. The important part is, that it will be Ducati GP18 with the newest specification, which has a good results from this season. Thanks to that I believe, that we will be able to make some really good results and I am already very excited about the next season.”