Jacque to replace Hofmann?

Following the news that Kawasaki's Alex Hofmann will miss the next two GPs due to injury, it appears likely that former 250cc world champion Olivier Jacque could be called up to steer his ZX-RR at Shanghai and Le Mans.

Jacque, who beat current Kawasaki rider and then team-mate Shinya Nakano in the 2000 250 championship decider at Phillip Island by a fraction of a second, tested the team's Ninja machine at Estoril yesterday.

Kawasaki were reported to be impressed by his speed, especially as Jacque had not ridden a race bike for a significant period of time. As such, and with no contracted test rider of GP standard on team green's books, it is likely that Olivier will take Hofmann's place for the next five weeks whilst the German receives treatment on his broken wrist.

Jacque and Nakano are long standing acquaintances and both graduated to 500GP in 2001 with Tech 3 Yamaha. Nakano left Tech 3 for D'Antin Yamaha in 2003, to make room for Alex Barros, and then joined Kawasaki in 2004 after D'Antin signed a deal to run Ducatis.

Meanwhile, Jacque was dropped by Tech 3 at the end of 2003, but rode in a few wild-card races for Moriwaki last season after Andrew Pitt switched back to World Supersport.

OJ then found himself without a ride for 2005, and will be hoping to impress in the next two rounds of the MotoGP championship, at Shanghai on May 1st and his home round at the French circuit of Le Mans on May 15th.