Takahashi, who was part of the works Honda team that won the Suzuka 8 Hours last month, is set to make his first MotoGP appearance since he made a wildcard outing at Motegi back in 2015.

The 33-year-old Japanese rider will fill in for Rins, who is still recovering from the broken right leg he sustained in a crash in the Mugello sprint race in June.

Rins’ place at LCR has been taken for the last three races by Iker Lecuona, who is unavailable this weekend due to a clash with the Magny-Cours round of the World Superbike championship.

Lecuona said previously that he would have to prioritise his Honda WSBK commitments in the event of any clashes with MotoGP, having also made two outings for the factory team in the latter series this year.

However, the young Spaniard is said to have made a good impression on Honda’s engineers with his feedback and even volunteered to miss the Magny-Cours WSBK round to continue racing in MotoGP.