The Kawasaki Racing Team has announced that French rising star Gautier Paulin will join the team next season for his rookie season in the MX1 Motocross World Championship.

Gautier has been one of the leading contenders in the MX2 GP series for the last four seasons and has been a regular face on the podium.

Gautier, who led the 2009 MX2 World Championship for Kawasaki before injuries dropped him to third of the series, has won at least one world championship race and scored countless podiums in recent years.

Still only 20 years old, Gautier could continue two more seasons in the MX2 class but, having already shown his great potential on a KX450F when he won a moto at the 2009 Motocross of Nations, had announced earlier in the year that 2011 would be his final season in the MX2 class.

He has decided to return to Kawasaki for his assault on the main class, and will join the KRT team this winter to test the KX450F-SR factory machinery and prepare his assault on the highly-competitive MX1 category.

“We are really happy to have signed Gautier,” said Kawasaki’s Steve Guttridge. “We pushed to have him in 2008 with Molson Kawasaki because we understood his talent and potential.

“He did a great job in 2009 with Bud Racing Team on the Kawasaki KX250F, fighting for the title and at the Nations he won a moto on a KX450F in his first ride on the bike so we know his potential on this bike and generally he always had a good feeling with Kawasaki.

“For our MX1 team we knew it was our best option, and so it’s important that he chose us from all of his options. Gautier is a very intelligent guy – he considered all the points of the team, the bike, the technicians, he looked to every aspect of the situation and he felt that we offered him the best package.”

Paulin will join Xavier Boog in factory Kawasaki colours for the 2012 season aboard the KX450F.