Pol Espargaro and Bradley Smith will remain as team-mate for the next two MotoGP seasons as the Spaniard also departs Monster Yamaha in the direction of KTM.

At the start of the 2016 season, KTM announced Bradley Smith as their first rider and on the eve of the Catalunya MotoGP round, Espargaro has announced he too will be joining Smith for the 2017 season.

"I am going to sign with KTM for the next two years and join the new adventure with them. New team, new bike in MotoGP. I saw the opportunity to try something different and to try and be with these guys in the future. Working together with KTM will be crazy hard, but I’m ready to work,” he said.

“They also showed me they’re ready to work. We have an agreement for two years and I want to thank Yamaha, Herve and Lin as they gave me the chance to grow in MotoGP and this is my dream come true. I have to say thanks and also to Ducati and Avintia because they showed a lot of interest too but we couldn’t go that way. Happy to face this adventure with KTM and finish this year well."