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Toni Elias is set to return to the Honda Gresini team next year after deciding to leave the Alice Ducati squad.

The Spaniard looked unlikely to be offered an extension to his Alice contract mid-way through what began as a disappointing season, but podium finishes at Brno and Misano raised his stock and brought about an offer from team boss Paolo Campinoti.

Both Campinoti and factory Ducati team boss Livio Suppo were happy to retain Elias for at least another season, but he is believed to have turned down the offer in favour of a return to Honda and Gresini, the team he rode for in 2007.

"The contract with Toni stipulated that he would be automatically confirmed if he was within the top eight in the championship after Brno," Suppo told Italian magazine Motosprint. "He wasn't, but we told him that if he carried on going the way he had been, then we would have confirmed him no problem.

"On Sunday Campinoti said 'if he goes on the podium again, we'll keep him'. He was third in the race (at Misano) so it was sorted for us. But after the race he said he had other offers and in the end he decided to go elsewhere."

Gresini's commercial director Carlo Merlini would not confirm that a deal with Elias had been completed, but he did say: "I can confirm that we are in talks and we have made up our mind about next year's riders."