DESPITE announcing on 19th July that the British rider would remain with the Ducati Team for another year, Cal Crutchlow will now be leaving the Italian team at the end of the 2014 season.
With confusion over the aforementioned confirmation of the Ducati contract continuing until the end of 2015, it has been left with Ducati to announce that the Briton's contract will be terminated at the end of the 2014 season.
The statement reads: "Ducati Corse announced today that it has reached an agreement with its factory rider Cal Crutchlow to terminate, ahead of time, the contract that ties the British rider to the Italian team in MotoGP for 2014 and also for next season.
The two factory Ducati Team riders for 2015 will now be Andrea Dovizioso and Andrea Iannone."
Speedweek announced last week that Crutchlow had until midnight on Thursday to decide whether to ride for the LCR Honda team next season and now that Ducati has released this statement it is looking increasingly likely that Crutchlow will be with the LCR Honda team next season replacing German Stefan Bradl.
It is said that Crutchlow almost closed a deal with LCR Honda in 2013 for the 2014 season, but instead decided on riding for the Italian team. With LCR Honda involving British sponsor CWM World, it would make sense to include a British rider within that team.
