It was widely bandied around that Hiroshi Aoyama would replace injured Dani Pedrosa at the Silverstone GP and that test rider Kousuke Akiyoshi would be called in to take the vacant spot in Gresini Honda, however Repsol Honda has decided not to call in a replacement rider and will field only Casey Stoner and Andrea Dovizioso this upcoming weekend.
Officially they’ll be only sixteen riders lining up on the grid on Sunday afternoon, but only if Colin Edwards will be actually able to ride less than one week after his collarbone surgery, and if Randy de Puniet doesn’t get bad news tomorrow (Wednesday) when he’ll undergo a MRI scan to check out the conditions of the ligaments in his right ankle, that he injured at Catalunya when Aoyama crashed into him.