MADRID, Dec 22: Former 500c world champion Alex Criville has signed a contract to ride for Luis d’Antin’s Yamaha team for the next two years.

Criville, who won the world title with Honda in 1999, will ride alongside Norick Abe of Japan.

“This contract provides a challenge for me in sporting terms after so many years with Honda,” Criville said in a statement released by the d’Antin team.

The 31-year-old, the first Spaniard to win the 500cc world championship, has ended a 10-year link with Honda.

He had originally planned to ride an Aprilia factory four-stroke bike next year, but the proposed deal did not materialise as he had hoped.

“The Aprilia project began to lose shape and wasn’t developing as I had hoped...so I then began to think about retiring,” he said earlier this month.

Criville has had two disappointing seasons since winning the world championship in 1999 and finished eighth in this year’s title race, 105 points behind Italy’s Valentino Rossi.

The Spaniard had podium finishes in this year’s Czech and Spanish grands prix, but his last win was in France in 2000.

—Reuters