Stuart Easton will get his first run out on a Yamaha at this year’s Macau GP after a late switch to Robin Croft’s SMT team.

Easton had been scheduled to partner Ian Hutchinson at PBM but after signing his deal to ride for Tommy Hill’s squad in BSB next season, a seat was found for him in the SMT outfit which is leasing a bike from SMR.

“It will be a great opportunity for me to ride the Yamaha early on and get a feel for it, even though it is on a street circuit,” said Easton, speaking to bikesportnews.com.

“We might find ourselves on the back foot a little bit but it is obviously a good package and it will be a good introduction for me to the bike. Even spending three days riding it around Macau will give me some indication of how it will suit going into next season.”