Former 125GP man Sergio Gadea has got the nod ahead of Loris Baz to stand in for the injured Joan Lascorz at this weekend's Monza World Superbike round and will partner Tom Sykes in the works Kawasaki squad.

It will be baptism of fire for the Spaniard as not only has he never raced at Monza, he hasn't ridden a Superbike under race conditions but it is fortunate that the Italian track is relatively simple to learn.

“This is a great challenge for me and I am very happy about it. I want to thank Kawasaki for the confidence they have had in me this weekend. I have never seen Monza before - only on the Playstation - and I was up until 1:30am this morning playing it. I have also done many laps on the scooter just to be sure of the circuit layout for the first practice session on Friday," said Gadea.