The 26-year-old Italian has become part of Ducati's factory line-up for next year after racing Gresini's CRT entry in his maiden MotoGP campaign, where he took a spectacular fifth place overall in the mixed conditions of the Valencia finale. The Grand Prix Commission revealed that Ducati had been given approval to field Pirro in the first European round of the season at Jerez, plus his two home grands prix at Mugello and Misano. Pirro has been testing with Ducati's revamped second team Pramac over the winter while 2013 race rider Ben Spies recovers from injuries sustained at Sepang. Ducati will field Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso as its full-time factory team riders next year, with Andrea Iannone alongside Spies in the second team. Source: Motorcycling - Ducati's Pirro given wildcard starts for 2013 - Yahoo! Eurosport UK
Be interesting to see how he fairs in the races given he's one of the test riders now, so probably done more laps then either Nicky, Andrea, Iannone, Spies put together on the GP13
