Source: Aprilia Racing.

Aprilia Racing has announced that it has parted ways with veteran Italian Marco Melandri ahead of this weekend’s MotoGP World Championship round at Sachsenring, Germany.

Melandri’s return to MotoGP has been a disaster on board the factory RS-GP in 2015, unable to score points with a best result of 18th at the Le Mans and Mugello rounds.

“Aprilia Racing and Marco Melandri have reached an agreement by mutual consent to terminate the contractual obligations between Marco Melandri and Aprilia Racing,” the statement reads.

“Consequently, Marco Melandri will no longer be lined up on the grid with Aprilia Racing starting from the German Grand Prix on 12 July. Aprilia Racing wishes Marco Melandri all the best in his future endeavors.”

After competing in the full championship with Paul Bird Motorsports in 2013 and 2014, Michael Laverty said it was special to be back in the grand prix paddock with the Gresini Aprilia outfit.

Source: Aprilia Racing.

“I’m excited to be back on the MotoGP grid this weekend of the German GP,” Laverty explained. “Competing against the regular guys racing MotoGP is a tough task, but I am relishing the opportunity. I have been riding with the Aprilia test team so I am comfortable with the Aprilia RS-GP machine and the Bridgestone tyres.

“Firstly I must adapt the race bikes to suit me and then look to keep progressing throughout the weekend. Alvaro [Bautista] has been riding strongly in this first half of the season and I have witnessed some great development work through the test team. I now look forward to being a part of the racing team.”

It’s not yet confirmed if Laverty, who also currently races for Tyco BMW in British Superbikes, will continue on with the team during races following the German round on Sunday.