Melandri, Elias confirmed at Fortuna Honda.

As previously reported on this website, double 2005 MotoGP race winner Marco Melandri and impressive class rookie Toni Elias have today been officially confirmed as teaming up together next season when Fortuna will switch its backing from the Tech 3 Yamaha team to Gresini Honda.

Fortuna will this replace outgoing sponsor Movistar, with the tobacco brand having signed to back Fausto Gresini's team during the 2006 and 2007 seasons.

Elias, who rode for Tech 3 Yamaha this season, will thus stay in Fortuna colours and ride Sete Gibernau's recently vacated RC211V, while Melandri will be staying put but renewing a collaboration with Altadis that ran from 2003 to 2004 when he too was a Yamaha rider.

"I am very happy to work with Fortuna again, a very prestigious sponsor who believed in me when I moved to MotoGP," declared MotoGP man of the moment Melandri. "I'm very proud to meet them again after one year away, it's a demonstration of great trust. They believe in my potential and I believe in their project. I hope to pay their trust back with the results that I didn't manage in past years."

Meanwhile, Elias bounced back from a serious wrist and ankle injury early in 2005 to clinch rookie of the year honours with 12th overall in the riders' championship and a best finish of sixth position (at the inaugural Turkish Grand Prix). Toni also took his best qualifying position, of sixth, at Istanbul.

Significantly, Elias scored points in all but the three races he missed due to injury this season and his loss will surely be a substantial blow for Yamaha - while Honda have added yet another 'young gun' to an already impressive 'next generation' line-up of Melandri, Nicky Hayden and Dani Pedrosa.

"I am really happy to take part in this new and ambitious project based on the experience of the Gresini team, the technical support of Honda and obviously Fortuna, to whom I am immensely thankful," declared Toni. "I am really happy to have Marco as a team-mate because he is a great rider and great guy. I have a lot to learn and I am at the right place to do it so I am really looking forward to starting work with my new team."

The return of Fortuna to Team Gresini marks the renewal of a previous partnership that saw the late Daijiro Kato in the tobacco brand's colours during his title winning 2001 250cc season and then his and Gresini's debut MotoGP season in 2002. Fortuna were then replaced by Telefonica Movistar.

"It is with great pleasure that we are here to announce the partnership with the Altadis group and its brand Fortuna," began Gresini. "From today we will continue a project started in 2001 and consolidated in 2002. In 2006 we will together take on a new challenge in the most competitive class, MotoGP.

"Thanks to the trust of such an important and prestigious partner who has shown great belief in our project, and in our riders, we are excited about presenting a young team with enormous potential. With 5 podiums and two victories, Marco has been a star of what has been a great season. Next year we will aim to consolidate and improve his results. Marco accepts this new challenge with the support of Fortuna, a partner that has believed in him since his move to MotoGP.

"We are also pleased to announce the arrival of Toni Elias, the 22-year-old Spanish rider, who has ridden in Fortuna colours for three years. After one year of apprenticeship in MotoGP, we are delighted to have him in our team and to start this adventure that will see him debut on a Honda. We believe in his potential and we are sure that together we can obtain good results," he concluded.

"We are delighted to work again with Fausto and his team with who we had a successful collaboration in 2001 and 2002. We feel the same about Marco... His results this season with the Gresini Team have made him the principal challenger of the current world champion for the next season's world crown," declared Carmen Abella, Altadis MotoGP sponsorship manager. "For his first year in MotoGP, Toni has shown his enormous potential and we expect a lot of him in his third season in our colours."

The Fortuna Honda team will run in its new livery for the first time on Wednesday at the Valencia test.

Meanwhile, it is not yet known if Fortuna's sister brand Gauloises will leave the Factory Yamaha Team, but today's announcement arguably brings the rumoured split a further step closer to reality.