Fresh from a two-day WorldSBK test with Pedercini Kawasaki, Yonny Hernandez will join the Monster Yamaha squad at Sepang as a temporary replacement for Jonas Folger.

The Columbian, who appears not to be under contract with Pedercini, has MotoGP experience after spending time in the Aspar squad and will ride for all three days in Malaysia but has not secured permanent ride.

“Before starting to talk about who will be on our second bike in Sepang, I would like to express one more time how sorry and sad I am, not having Jonas Folger with us in 2018. Having said that, we have to try to overcome this situation the best way we can and everybody knows it’s not easy. On the 20th of January, almost everyone with the required level is already under contract, therefore I am very happy to have found out that Yonny Hernandez was so far without a contract," said team boss Herve Poncharal.

"I know, that he has got some plans and I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Pedercini letting Yonny test with us and give him the opportunity to show what he can do on a Yamaha M1 MotoGP bike. I am pleased to give him this possibility to test for three days and with it giving him the chance to show his potential to both, Yamaha Motor Corporation and the Monster Yamaha Tech3 team. Yet, no permanent decision will be taken before we fly back from Sepang. For sure, we will analyze in detail how Yonny performs during this test and obviously, he is one of the riders on our short list for 2018.”