Takumi Takahashi to race at San Marino MotoGP for LCR Honda in Alex Rins' place

Rins, who is still recovering from a broken leg, has been replaced at the past three rounds by Iker Lecuona.

But Lecuona is riding in the WorldSBK round at Magny-Cours this weekend, meaning Honda had to look elsewhere.

They have turned to Japanese veteran Takahashi, who was part of Honda's Suzuka 8 Hours win last month.

Takahashi will race in MotoGP for the first time since 2015, when he was a wildcard in Japan.

He is racing full-time this year in All-Japan Superbike, after two poor years representing Honda in British Superbikes.

He returns to MotoGP at Honda's lowest ebb. Last Friday in Barcelona, Honda's four bikes were the four slowest on the entire grid, and in Sunday's race the two LCR bikes were among the three slowest to finish.