Takaaki Nakagami

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Takaaki Nakagami
Takaaki Nakagami.jpg
Nakagami at the 2009 British Grand Prix.
Nationality Japan Japanese
Born (1992-02-09) February 9, 1992 (age 32)
Chiba, Japan
Current team IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia
Bike number 30
Motorcycle racing career statistics
Moto2 World Championship
Active years 20112015
Manufacturers Suter, Kalex
Championships 0
2015 Championship position 8th (100 pts)
Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points
69 0 6 3 0 340
125cc World Championship
Active years 20072009
Manufacturers Honda, Aprilia
Championships 0
2009 Championship position 16th (43 pts)
Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points
34 0 0 0 0 55

Takaaki Nakagami (中上 貴晶 Nakagami Takaaki?, born February 9, 1992) is a Moto2 world championship rider from Japan, who rides for Idemitsu Honda Team Asia.

Career

Early career

Born in Chiba, Nakagami joined the Japanese Road Race Championship in the GP125 category in 2005 joining the Harc-Pro Honda Team finishing 13th as a rookie in the series. He stayed in the Japanese GP125 championship for 2006 with Harc-Pro again, winning every race of the season; becoming the youngest ever Japanese GP125 champion. Also in 2006, Nakagami also joined the MotoGP Academy which gave him the chance to compete overseas for the first time in the CEV (Spanish) 125GP series, Nakagami finished in 12th position in the championship. His best result came in the second round at Jerez finishing in 5th place.

He decided to focus on the CEV 125GP championship in 2007 with the MotoGP academy, Nakagami's results improved in 2007 and he finished in 6th place overall with a 3rd-place finish at Valencia his best result. Nakagami also received his first 125cc World Championship wildcard entry at the final round of the season in Valencia qualifying in 20th position but failing to finish the race.

He impressed enough to secure a full-time ride in the 125cc World Championship on 2008 joining the Italian I.C. Team riding an Aprilia, he finished the season in 24th overall with a best finish 8th place at Donington Park. For 2009, Nakagami joined another Italian team called Ongetta I.S.P.A. Aprilia he improved his overall performance finishing 16th overall with a best results of two 5th places at a wet Le Mans and Donington Park.

Despite having offers to remain in the 125cc championship in 2010, Nakagami decided to return to Japan and re join the Harc-Pro team, competing the Japanese ST600 championship aboard a Honda, Nakagami won the first race of the season at Tsukuba. He went on to finish 8th overall. He remained with Harc-Pro in 2012 but changed classes and entered the J-GP2 class aboard a Honda HP6, Nakagami won 5 of the 6 races during the season and the championship despite not competing in the Okayama round due to injuries sustained when he was substituting at the Motegi Moto2 World Championship round for the Italtrans Racing Team.

Moto2 World Championship

Nakagami did enough during his substitute display to earn a full-time ride for the Italtrans Racing Team in the Moto2 World Championship riding a Kalex with a Honda CBR600 engine, finishing his rookie season 15th in the standings with a best result of 5th at Jerez. For 2013, Nakagami remains in Moto2 with Italtrans aboard a Kalex, at the opening round at Losail, Nakagami achieved his first podium in Grand Prix racing with a 3rd-place finish. At Le Mans, Nakagami earned his first pole position in Grand Prix racing. Nakagami achieved his second career Grand Prix podium with a second-place finish behind Esteve Rabat at Indianapolis, he led most of the race but was passed in the closing laps and finished less than a second from victory. He took his second pole of the season at the Czech Grand Prix, at Brno; he went on to take his second successive second-place finish, behind Mika Kallio. He once again took pole at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone and again finished second, this time behind Championship leader and home rider Scott Redding. At Misano, Nakagami finished second for the fourth race in a row; he led the majority of the race before he was passed by Pol Espargaró in the closing laps. He finished the season 8th overall. For 2014 he signed to ride for Tadayuki Okada's team, Idemitsu Honda Team Asia. A positive start to the season with a second-place finish at Qatar was denied as he was disqualified for technical reasons. Nakagami struggled for the rest of the year with bike set up and finished the season down in 22nd position. Despite the struggles of 2014, Nakagami remained with Honda Team Asia for 2015.

Career statistics

By seasons and teams

Season Class Team Motorcycle Type Races Wins Podiums Poles Fastest Laps Pts Position
2007 125cc MotoGP Academy Honda Honda RS125R 1 0 0 0 0 0 NC
2008 125cc I.C. Team Aprilia Aprilia RS125 17 0 0 0 0 12 24th
2009 125cc Ongetta Team I.S.P.A. Aprilia Aprilia RS125 16 0 0 0 0 43 16th
2011 Moto2 Italtrans Racing Team Suter Suter MMXI 0 0 0 0 0 0 NC
2012 Moto2 Italtrans Racing Team Kalex Kalex Moto2 17 0 0 0 0 57 15th
2013 Moto2 Italtrans Racing Team Kalex Kalex Moto2 16 0 5 3 0 149 8th
2014 Moto2 Idemitsu Honda Team Asia Kalex Kalex Moto2 18 0 0 0 0 34 22nd
2015 Moto2 Idemitsu Honda Team Asia Kalex Kalex Moto2 18 0 1 0 0 100 8th

Races by year

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Yr Class Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Pos Pts
2007 125cc Honda QAT SPA TUR CHN FRA ITA CAT GBR NED GER CZE SMR POR JPN AUS MAL VAL
Ret
NC 0
2008 125cc Aprilia QAT
19
SPA
15
POR
19
CHN
Ret
FRA
16
ITA
16
CAT
22
GBR
8
NED
Ret
GER
18
CZE
Ret
RSM
19
IND
Ret
JPN
13
AUS
Ret
MAL
Ret
VAL
16
24th 12
2009 125cc Aprilia QAT
20
JPN
20
SPA
16
FRA
5
ITA
15
CAT
15
NED
17
GER
Ret
GBR
5
CZE
19
IND
9
RSM
20
POR
11
AUS
18
MAL
11
VAL
14
16th 43
2011 Moto2 Suter QAT SPA POR FRA CAT GBR NED ITA GER CZE IND RSM ARA JPN
DNS
AUS MAL VAL NC 0
2012 Moto2 Kalex QAT
14
SPA
5
POR
18
FRA
Ret
CAT
6
GBR
19
NED
12
GER
19
ITA
7
IND
16
CZE
17
RSM
11
ARA
29
JPN
7
MAL
Ret
AUS
9
VAL
Ret
15th 57
2013 Moto2 Kalex QAT
3
AME
Ret
SPA
4
FRA
Ret
ITA
Ret
CAT
5
NED
DNS
GER
10
IND
2
CZE
2
GBR
2
RSM
2
ARA
11
MAL
8
AUS
22
JPN
9
VAL
13
8th 149
2014 Moto2 Kalex QAT
DSQ
AME
11
ARG
15
SPA
Ret
FRA
16
ITA
16
CAT
13
NED
14
GER
21
IND
11
CZE
19
GBR
15
RSM
10
ARA
15
JPN
13
AUS
11
MAL
Ret
VAL
14
22nd 34
2015 Moto2 Kalex QAT
14
AME
10
ARG
20
SPA
17
FRA
7
ITA
13
CAT
20
NED
13
GER
7
IND
9
CZE
12
GBR
14
RSM
3
ARA
8
JPN
22
AUS
4
MAL
4
VAL
11
8th 100
2016 Moto2 Kalex QAT
14
ARG
9
AME
15
SPA
FRA
ITA
CAT
NED
GER
AUT
CZE
GBR
RSM
ARA
JPN
AUS
MAL
VAL
14th* 10*

References

External links