Takaaki Nakagami

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. He managed to improve and finished on the podium in Misano.

In 2016, he scored his first victory in Assen.

Races by year

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

* Season still in progress.