Yonny Hernandez

Colombian Yonny Hernandez stepped up to the MotoGP class in 2012 riding for the Avintia team, where he claimed a best finish of twelfth before his season came to an early end due to a dislocated left collarbone in Japan.

2013 was very much a year of two halves for Hernandez, beginning with ART CRT machinery as part of the Paul Bird Motorsport team, then moving to the main class with Pramac Ducati in place of the injured Ben Spies.

Enduring a troubled start to his tenure at PBM, Hernandez suffered more DNFs than points’ finishes in the 13 races he completed with the British squad, testing the patience of boss Paul Bird.

Despite this, Hernandez was called up to contest the final five events on the Pramac Ducati, claiming a top ten finish at Sepang to precede a deal that would see him stay with the team in 2014.

Although on year-old machinery - unlike team-mate Andrea Iannone - Hernandez showed a marked improvement on previous seasons.

Notching up a career-best seventh place finish in Australia, Hernandez scored in all but six races, to put him in the top half of the Open class riders, arguably his closest rivals in terms of specification.

Hernandez then maintained his solid form on the Pramac Ducati in 2015 en route to 14th position overall, though he was roundly out-performed by team-mate Danilo Petrucci.

Four top ten finishes from the first six races including a season-best of eighth in France marked a decent opening, but from here Hernandez’s points’ finishes were largely reduced to picking up digits here and there. Hernandez moved to the Aspar team for 2016.