Casey Stoner will race for HRC next year after announcements confirmed on Friday, July 9th, the 24 year old Aussie will finish his association with Ducati at the completion of the current MotoGP season 2010, bringing a relationship to an end that has been incurred over four years and has shown a MotoGP World Championship title in his initial season with the Italian factory.

Ducati confirmed after “four years of extraordinary collaboration” the last event of the 2010 year at Valencia on November 7th would be the conclusion of a partnership that began in 2007, the year that the Desmosedici GP7 had its debut in the fresh 800cc session and where Stoner was victorious of the MotoGP title.

“I would like to thank Casey on behalf of our fans and our sponsors, but most of all on behalf of all the people working at Ducati,” comments Filippo Preziosi, Ducati Corse General Director. “The victories and emotions he gave us rewarded all the hard work and sacrifice we made. In these four years together we have had a lot of great moments. Securing the 2007 MotoGP World Championship title and the victory at Mugello in 2009 were moments that we will never forget. In Casey we not only found an incredibly talented rider, but also an honest and loyal guy and that’s why there will always be a strong and sincere bond between us, even as a competitor.”

Stoner adds, “I must thank Ducati for giving me such a great opportunity to race and win with them over these past four years. They took a gamble when they signed me at the end of 2006 as I was unknown, but as we worked together we were able to win a Championship, many races and challenge for the Championship in the last two seasons. I have now decided to move on and I will have new challenges in the future and different obstacles to overcome, but I will not forget these years with Ducati and the people I have had the privilege to work so closely with. So a big thanks to Ducati and all our sponsors who we have shared success with while achieving lifelong goals.”

Following Ducati’s confirmation, HRC stated that Stoner will be a factory Honda competitor in next year’s squad. Stoner united with Ducati in 2007 after having raced for the LCR Honda team in his debut year back in 2006.

“We are very pleased that Casey will join Honda again next year,” says HRC Vice President Shuhei Nakamoto. “Clearly he is one of the top riders in MotoGP and he will bring valuable speed and experience to our team. In the factory Honda squad we already have two very strong and experienced riders in Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso who are performing very well and currently hold second and third positions in the 2010 World Championship. HRC hopes also to retain these two riders for next year - giving us what would be a truly formidable line-up.”