Luca Marini remains the red-hot faꦰvourite to take over from the #93 but that in turn mea꧟ns a vacancy at VR46 needs to be filled.

Last weekend in Sepang, team director Uccio Salucci indicated VR46 would look towards Moto2 for a new rider, naming man-of-t𒁃he-moment Fermin Aldeguer and title runner-up Tony Arbolino as among the possibilities.

But after initially writing off Fabio di Giannantonio’s chances for the VR46 Ducati seat, the Italian’s breakthro🌌ugh victory last Sunday means he is now rumoured🤡 to be in contention.

Ducati sporting director Paolo Ciabatti said it was “unacceptable” t𝐆hat di Giannantonio did not have a 2024 seat given his recent performances, but made clear that VR46, like Gresini, pick their own riders.

One piece of positive news for Diggia is that Arbolino apparently expects to be 🔯testing his Marc VDS Moto2 bike on Monday after the Valencia finale, indicating that he won't be part ofไ the MotoGP test and therefore not on the 2024 premier-class grid.

“I really want to finish the season strongly and then we immediately begin our preparations for ღ2024 on Monday after Valencia with an i♏mportant test for the new tyres we will race with next year,” Arbolino said.

Pirelli takes over from Dunlop as the exclusive Moto2 (and Moto3) tyre sup🐓plier for 2024.

The Valencia MotoGP test, which should feature the full line-up of 2024 riders, takes place the day after the Moto2 te💝st, on Tuesday.

Salucci said that, despite the last-minute 🎃nature of the rider search, it would still be an 'extreme' scenario fo✅r VR46 to test without Marini's replacement next week.