Loris Baz

A double WSBK race winner for Kawasaki, Loris Baz made the switch to MotoGP for 2015.

While his lofty height had scuppered his original plan to race with Aspar, Baz gave a glimpse of what it was missing by proving a respectable addition to the MotoGP grid riding an Open class Yamaha for Forward Racing.

Baz gave a positive account of himself relative to his fellow rookies on similar machinery including fellow WSBK convert Eugene Laverty , while he was out-performing highly-rated team-mate Stefan Bradl before he jumped ship to Aprilia in the wake of Forward's mid-season crisis.

A fourth place in the wet at Misano was as unexpected as it was deserved and Baz switches to Ducati machinery at the Avintia team for 2016.