Jack Miller breathes sigh of relief, Yamaha miss out on signing his replacement

Jack Miller and Miguel Oliveira have seemingly been handed a lifeline in their respective quests to remain in MotoGP beyond the end of 2025.

The Pramac Yamaha duo have been competing against each other since the early summer for the second seat at the Italian satellite team for 2026, since once of them is certain to miss out in 2026 as a result of Yamaha capturing reigning World Superbike Champion Toprak Razgatlioglu for the 2026 MotoGP campaign.

Complication was added at Assen at the end of June when Diogo Moreira shot into contention for a 2026 MotoGP seat with his maiden intermediate class win at the Dutch TT.

Yamaha miss out on Diogo Moreira as a replacement for Jack Miller

The Brazilian’s Sachsenring race the week after is remembered as much for his collision with David Alonso as it is for his ride from 25th to fourth before that error, but it was the latter point that made more impact to the perception of Moreira.

Yamaha was interested in signing the Brazilian for the second Pramac seat, reportedly making an offer to him before the Austrian Grand Prix, but they were not alone.

Honda also made Moreira an offer, to race in the LCR Honda team in 2026 but reportedly with the possibility of going to the factory team from 2027.

Autosport reports that it is the second offer, that of Honda, that Moreira is favouring, which would take a competitor away from Jack Miller and Miguel Oliveira in the fight for the second Pramac seat..

The move for Honda to capture Moreira and place him at LCR would mean the absence of 2025 rookie Somkiat Chantra from next year’s MotoGP grid. The Thai rider stepped up this year but has scored only one point and has been out of action due to injury. Chantra will be replaced at this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix by Aleix Espargaro.

Since Takaaki Nakagami moved to MotoGP in 2018, the second seat at LCR Honda has been backed by Japanese oil refining firm Idemitsu. Autosport reports that this sponsorship will be sacrificed in the move to sign Brazil’s Moreira.