![thumb Toni Ellias](https://speedcafe.us/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Ellias-344x224.jpg)
Former Moto2 World Champion Toni Ellias will replace the injured Hector Barbera at the Pramac Ducati squad for this weekend’s US Grand Prix at Laguna Seca.
Barbera recently broke his leg in a training accident and is expected to be out for four-six weeks.
The 29-year-old Ellias had been riding a Suter for Aspar Racing in this year’s Moto2 World Championship, but parted ways with the Spanish outfit following the most recent round at Mugello.
Ellias competed full-time in MotoGP between 2005 and 2009, completing the full 2008 season with Pramac.
Ellias then stepped back to the Moto2 class in 2010, when he took the title, before enduring a miserable return to MotoGP with Team LCR last year.
The Spaniard is perhaps best remembered for pipping Valentino Rossi to take his one and only MotoGP victory at Estoril in 2006.