Takaaki Nakagami
Takaaki Nakagami is a Grand Prix motorcycle racer from Japan, who rides for LCR Honda Idemitsu. He won the Japanese GP125 Championship in 2006.
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 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. He managed to improve and finished on the podium in Misano.
In 2016, he scored his first victory in Assen. He collected three third-place finishes and 8 top 5s to finish 6th in points. Continuing with Honda Team Asia in 2017, he won at Silverstone and claimed three third-place finishes, and ranked 7th in points.
MotoGP World Championship
Nakagami moved up to MotoGP in 2018, signing with Team LCR to ride a year-old Honda.In October 2018 it was confirmed that Nakagami would remain at the Team LCR Honda for the 2019 MotoGP Season with teammate Cal Crutchlow.
Career statistics
Grand Prix motorcycle racing
By season
By class
Races by year
| Year | Class | Bike | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | Pos | Pts |
| 125cc | Honda | QAT | SPA | TUR | CHN | FRA | ITA | CAT | GBR | NED | GER | CZE | SMR | POR | JPN | AUS | MAL | VAL Ret | NC | 0 | |||
| 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 | |||
| 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 | ||||
| Moto2 | Suter | QAT | SPA | POR | FRA | CAT | GBR | NED | ITA | GER | CZE | IND | RSM | ARA | JPN DNS | AUS | MAL | VAL | NC | 0 | |||
| 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 | |||
| 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 7 | FRA 5 | ITA 9 | CAT 3 | NED 1 | GER 11 | AUT 7 | CZE Ret | GBR 3 | RSM 3 | ARA 5 | JPN 4 | AUS 5 | MAL 21 | VAL 6 | 6th | 169 | |
| 2017 | Moto2 | Kalex | QAT 3 | ARG Ret | AME 3 | SPA 21 | FRA 7 | ITA Ret | CAT 10 | NED 3 | GER 10 | CZE 24 | AUT 6 | GBR 1 | RSM 10 | ARA 8 | JPN 6 | AUS Ret | MAL Ret | VAL 7 | 7th | 137 | |
| 2018 | MotoGP | Honda | QAT 17 | ARG 13 | AME 14 | SPA 12 | FRA 15 | ITA 18 | CAT Ret | NED 19 | GER Ret | CZE 17 | AUT 15 | GBR C | RSM 13 | ARA 12 | THA 22 | JPN 15 | AUS 14 | MAL 14 | VAL 6 | 20th | 33 |
| MotoGP | Honda | QAT 9 | ARG 7 | AME 10 | SPA 9 | FRA Ret | ITA 5 | CAT 8 | NED Ret | GER 14 | CZE 9 | AUT 11 | GBR 17 | RSM 18 | ARA 10 | THA 10 | JPN 16 | AUS | MAL | VAL | 13th | 74 | |
| MotoGP | Honda | SPA 10 | ALU 4 | CZE | AUT | STY | RSM | ERM | CAT | FRA | ARA | TER | EUR | VAL | THA | MAL | ARG | 4th* | 19* |
* Season still in progress.