Hafizh Syahrin Abdullah has extended his contract by one year with Monster Yamaha Tech3, the French team announced on Wednesday.

The 24-year-old, who is the first Malaysian rider to compete in the sport's premier class, joined Hervé Poncharal's team at the start of the 2018 MotoGP season after seven years racing in the Moto2 category.

"I have to say thank you very much to Hervé for trusting in me and giving me this opportunity to stay with the Tech3 family and at the same time to join the KTM family," he was quoted saying to the MotoGP official website.

"I also have to express a huge thank you to my manager Dato' Razlan [Razali], who helped me to achieve this dream arriving in the MotoGP class, plus thank you to KTM for believing in Hervé and in me.

"I will work hard for 2019 and I’ll be better prepared, as this is not as surprising as this season.

"I’m incredibly happy to get this chance, I even feel close to crying with joy.

"Thanks to everybody and especially to Hervé and Dato' Razlan for always believing in me."

Poncharal was also delighted to retain Hafizh for another season.

"Since Hafizh jumped on our MotoGP bike, it’s been like a dream, every single day, because he’s been very fast and a lot faster than some people were thinking and we’ve been very proud of what he did," the Tech3 team principal said.

"He has been consistently battling for the top rookie spot and apart from that, Hafizh is a very special character."

Ahead of the upcoming Catalan GP, taking place on June 17, Hafizh is currently 16th on the overall standings and the best-performing rookie ahead of Franco Morbidelli ​(EG 0,0 Marc VDS), Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda), Thomas Luthi ​(EG 0,0 Marc VDS) and Xavier Simon (Reale Avintia Racing).

He achieved a career-best ninth-place finish at the Argentine GP in April.