MotoGP: Bradl joins Forward Racing for 2015

Stefan Bradl will move to Forward Racing for the 2015 MotoGP season following Cal Crutchlow's arrival at his current squad LCR.

Crutchlow announced last week that he had agreed to terminate his works Ducati deal one year early to allow a switch to LCR Honda, which has run Bradl since 2012. The 24-year-old German has subsequently found a new home at Giovanni Cuzari's Forward Yamaha team.

"It's with great pleasure that we welcome Stefan Bradl in our team," said Cuzari. "We believe that Stefan is a strong rider and our package suits his riding style very well and we look forward to start this new cooperation."

Forward currently fields two Open class Yamahas for Aleix Espargaro and Colin Edwards. While Edwards has already announced that he will retire at the end of 2014, Espargaro, who took pole at Assen and is currently sixth in the championship, has been linked to a seat with the returning Suzuki factory team.

Bradl came into MotoGP with LCR after beating Marc Marquez to the 2011 Moto2 title. His standout performance so far was in last year's Laguna Seca race, where he took pole and finished second to Marquez in the race.

LCR could still expand to a second bike for 2015, with team boss Lucio Cecchinello this week telling the official MotoGP website that a production Honda could be fielded alongside Crutchlow's factory-spec example, and that Moto3 championship leader Jack Miller was among the candidates to ride it.