(CNN) -- The task of replacing seven-time MotoGP world champion Valentino Rossi at Ducati has been handed to his fellow Italian Andrea Dovizioso.
Legendary rider Rossi will return to former team Yamaha Factory Racing on a two-year deal at the start of the 2013 season, a move which will see him reunited with fellow title winner and rival Jorge Lorenzo.
Dovizioso, currently riding for the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 satellite outfit, is fourth in the standings after 11 rounds of the 2012 season, 46 points ahead of Rossi.
The 26-year-old will spend his sixth season in the elite division of motorbike racing at the Italian team, alongside American 2006 champion Nicky Hayden.
"It is with great pleasure that I welcome Andrea, as we marshal our best efforts in confronting the MotoGP World Championship," Ducati president Gabriele Del Torchio said of the 26-year-old on MotoGP's official website.
Valentino Rossi, left, will rejoin Jorge Lorenzo at Yamaha next season, renewing one of MotoGP's biggest rivalries in recent years.
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Honda's world champion Casey Stoner won 10 of the 17 completed races in MotoGP last season, including the finale in Valencia. He is hoping to retain his Qatar race title in Sunday's season opener.
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"Along with Nicky Hayden, with whom we have renewed a working agreement, we are confident that we will be able to proceed with our development program, to compete, and to obtain the results and rewards that will repay our efforts and the faith that our partners, sponsors and fans have never failed to demonstrate."
Dovizioso finished the 2011 championship in third position and will hope for better results at Ducati than Rossi achieved -- the 33-year-old has recorded just two podium finishes in 28 races.
Ducati will be without Hayden for this weekend's Czech Grand Prix after he picked up a hand injury during a qualifying crash at the last race in Indianapolis, meaning Rossi will be the team's sole rider at Brno.
Reigning world champion Casey Stoner, third in the 2012 riders' standings, will not race this weekend after a crash in the U.S. left the Australian with a fractured bone in his right ankle and torn ligaments.
Despite picking up the injuries in qualifying ahead of the race, Stoner was still able to compete in the grand prix and register a fourth-place finish.
Stoner will now fly from the Czech Republic to his homeland after doctors recommended he undergo surgery.
"It was always feeling like it was going to be this decision anyway," explained Stoner, who will retire at the end of the season. "I was recommended by everyone not to race on Sunday in Indianapolis, so I didn't expect the situation to be better here.
"It's definitely disappointing; it's not what we wanted, especially in my last season ... In the later part of the season you never know what could have happened, but we'll keep pushing.
"I don't regret it [racing at Indianapolis]. I've never really followed people's orders with things like that in the past. But now, if another accident was to happen it would be huge damage. It's just frustrating to thing what we could have done without this injury."
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Seven-time world champion Rossi has struggled since joining Ducati in 2011, having taken with him his No. 46 -- the number with which his bike has always been adorned to commemorate the first win by his father, who was also a motorbike racer.
Rossi left Yamaha in 2010, having won 46 races for the Japanese team. However, that year the man known as "The Doctor" lost his world title to younger teammate Lorenzo.
Rossi won the world championship in Lorenzo's first two years with the team, but the Spaniard usurped him after finishing fourth in 2008 and second in 2009.
Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo finished second at Japanese Grand Prix in October -- and second overall as the Spaniard relinquished his world title to Stoner. A finger injury ruled him out of the last three races.
Honda's Andrea Dovizioso will be seeking his first race victory since his maiden win in 2009. The Italian placed third overall last year after registering seven podium placings.
Another Honda rider, Dani Pedrosa, was fourth in 2011 after missing three races due to a fractured collarbone at the French Grand Prix in May. The Spaniard was runner-up to Lorenzo in 2010.
Seven-time world champion Valentino Rossi will seek to improve on a disappointing first season at Ducati, having ended 2011 in seventh place.
American rider Ben Spies was Rossi's replacement at Yamaha's main team last year, and the 27-year-old won a race for the first time in the Netherlands and finished fifth overall.
Rossi's teammate Nicky Hayden was a world champion with Honda in 2006, but finished eighth last year and crashed in the final race. The 30-year-old American is starting his fourth season at the Italian team.
Britain's Cal Crutchlow was a big success in the World Superbike series, but struggled after taking the step up to MotoGP last year with the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 team.
Hiroshi Aoyama was the top Japanese rider in MotoGP last year. The 30-year-old finished the season 10th for the San Carlo Honda Gresini team.
Spanish rider Hector Barbera has switched to the Pramac Racing team for 2012 after two years at Ducati, where he finished 12th and then 11th overall.
Young Czech rider Karel Abraham will be embarking on his second season in MotoGP. The 22-year-old was 14th overall for Ducati last year.
The starting grid will be less colorful this year due to the absence of charismatic Italian rider Marco Simoncelli, who died after crashing at the Malaysian Grand Prix in October.
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