The Aspar Team will retain Karel Abraham alongside Alvaro Bautista in the 2018 MotoGP World Championship following a positive first season together.

On return from a single season in World Superbike, Ducati GP15-equipped Abraham achieved a career-best of seventh at Assen and is focused on finishing out the year strongly.

“I am very happy to have re-signed with the Aspar Team and to continue with the same group of people is very important to me,” Abraham said. “I am very happy and I am already looking forward to a new challenge next season, but right now I need to concentrate on the rest of this season, which is the most important. As I said, I am very happy, but we have to focus on the here and now.”

Team general manager Jorge Martinez ‘Aspar’ said: “For the Aspar Team it is a source of satisfaction to renew with Karel Abraham. When we signed him last year we felt he could do a good job, but the results he have achieved have been a very positive surprise.

“He has done much better than we expected right from pre-season and, as the races have gone by, he has continued to improve and achieve great results. We think we can continue to improve with him in the future. It is a simple choice, he is happy with the team and we are happy with him, so we are going to continue in the same way and chase even bigger goals.”

Aspar Team has previously confirmed last month that grand prix mainstay Bautista – who will be making his 250th start at Silverstone this weekend – would also be staying put with the Spanish outfit for another term.