Team Marquez as Alex joins brother Marc at Honda

The Repsol Honda MotoGP team will be a family affair next season after the Japanese manufacturer announced on Monday that Alex Marquez was joining as team mate to older brother Marc.

The 23-year-old Spaniard won this year's Moto2 championship, his second title after Moto3 in 2014, while Marc, 26, clinched his sixth MotoGP crown.

Honda Racing Corporation said in a statement that Alex had signed a one-year deal.

He replaces compatriot Jorge Lorenzo, a triple MotoGP champion who retired after last weekend's season-ending race in Valencia.

The announcement dashed the hopes of French rider Johann Zarco, who is looking for a seat after leaving the Austrian KTM team.

The Marquez brothers are not the only siblings lining up on the MotoGP grid, with Spaniards Pol and Aleix Espargaro also competing at KTM and Aprilia respectively, but they will be the only ones in the same team.

Formula One has seen a number of brothers competing at the same time, including Michael and Ralf Schumacher at different teams in the 1990s and 2000s.

The 2020 MotoGP season starts in Qatar on March 8.