Poll Results: Who will Honda sign in Stoner's place?

Casey Stoner's shock announcement that he will retire at the end of the 2012 MotoGP season is a massive blow to the Repsol Honda team, which must now find a new rider to take over the reigning double world champion's factory RC213V.

The 'no rookies in a factory team' rule means HRC's options are limited to choosing from the present full time MotoGP rider line-up, or hiring a former MotoGP rider from another series (such as WSBK).

We asked who you think should get one of the best rides in MotoGP, by choosing from a nine rider shortlist. It is assumed Dani Pedrosa will remain on the second Repsol RCV.

Almost 4,000 votes were cast and the results are shown below...

1.Valentino Rossi 33.52%
2.Stefan Bradl 13.93%
3.Cal Crutchlow 13.7%
4.Jorge Lorenzo 11.01%
5.Another rider 8.35%
6.Alvaro Bautista 8.01%
7.Ben Spies 3.39%
8.Nicky Hayden 3.21%
9.Andrea Dovizioso 3.10%
10.Marco Melandri 1.80%