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Sete Gibernau has signed to ride for Telefonica Movistar Suzuki next year with Kenny Roberts. Gibernau (27) has ridden as team mate with Roberts before, in 1993 the rode the Spanish 250 Open series as team mates with Gibernau finishing ahead of Roberts.
In 1996, he started GP racing. In 1997 he went to the GP500cc class, and in 1999 Honda selected him to replace Mick Doohan, 5 times world champion. Gibernau\'s went on to take one second and three third places to finish fifth overall in the 1999 championship.
Gibernau will replace Japanese rider Nobuatsu Aoki who has been with Suzuki 3 years.
Gibernau said \"I\'m proud and pleased to have been chosen by Suzuki, and I\'m also looking forward to working with Kenny again, I have always been dedicated to racing my best, and achieving the maximum possible. With Suzuki, I know I will be one of two riders with the benefit of direct factory input, rather than one of several riders. For me, this is an important step towards the ultimate goal of winning the 500 World Championship.\"
Roberts is happy getting his old team mate back in the team. \"Sete has a great family background. He grew up in a motorcycle environment. He and I have worked together before, and he\'s a good team player. He also speaks very good English - probably better than me! All that\'s good for our team, because we need help in developing the Suzuki for next year. I know he will contribute towards us winning the championship in 2001.\"
Telephonica Movistar team manager Garry Taylor, is rapt with his new new rider. \"We\'re delighted to have secured Sete\'s services. It\'s important to Telefonica MoviStar, our Spanish sponsors, to have a Spanish rider, but that\'s not why we chose Sete,\" in fact we spoke seriously to him about joining this season, even before we\'d agreed sponsorship with Telefonica. Sete was top of our shopping list in any case.\"
