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Takaaki Nakagami
Nakagami at the2023 Japanese Grand Prix
Nationality	Japanese
Born	(1992-02-09)9 February 1992 (age 33) Chiba, Japan
Current team	Honda HRC Test Team
Bike number	30
Motorcycle racing career statistics MotoGP World Championship Active years 2018–2025 Manufacturers Honda Championships 0 2025 championship position 23rd (10 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 126 0 0 1 0 444 Moto2 World Championship Active years 2011–2017 Manufacturers Suter (2011) Kalex (2012–2017) Championships 0 2017 championship position 7th (137 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 105 2 14 5 1 646 125cc World Championship Active years 2007–2009 Manufacturers Honda (2007) Aprilia (2008–2009) Championships 0 2009 championship position 16th (43 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 34 0 0 0 0 55

Takaaki Nakagami (Japanese:中上 貴晶,Hepburn:Nakagami Takaaki; born 9 February 1992) is a JapaneseGrand Prix motorcycle racer, who competed forIdemitsu Honda LCR in theMotoGP class until retiring from full time competition after the 2024 season. Nakagami currently acts as a test rider forHRC based in Japan, and team liaison for Honda's Japanese and Italian teams in MotoGP from the 2025 season.^[1]

Nakagami won theJapanese Road Race Championship 125cc class in 2006 and J-GP2 class in 2011.

Born inChiba, 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 125cc championship for 2006 with Harc-Pro again, winning every race of the season; becoming the youngest-ever Japanese 125cc champion. Also in 2006, Nakagami joined the MotoGP Academy which gave him the chance to compete overseas for the first time in the Spanish CEV 125cc series. Nakagami finished in 12th position of the championship. His best result came in the second round at Jerez, finishing in 5th place.

He decided to focus on the CEV 125cc 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 as 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 for2008, joining the Italian I.C. Team riding anAprilia, he finished the season in 24th overall with a best finish of 8th place atDonington Park. For2009, Nakagami joined another Italian team, Ongetta I.S.P.A., again on anAprilia RS125. He improved his overall performance, finishing 16th overall with his best results being two 5th places at a wetLe Mans and at Donington Park.

Despite having offers to remain in the 125cc championship in 2010, Nakagami decided to return to Japan and rejoin the Harc-Pro team, He won theSuzuka 8 Hours in 2010 and competing the Japanese ST600 championship aboard aHonda. Nakagami won the first race of the season atTsukuba. 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 theMotegi Moto2 World Championship round for the Italtrans Racing Team.

Nakagami did enough during his substitute display to earn a full-time ride for the Italtrans Racing Team in the2012 Moto2 World Championship riding aKalex with a Honda CBR600 engine. He finished his rookie season 15th in the standings with a best result of 5th at Jerez.

For2013, Nakagami remained 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 behindEsteve 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 theCzech Grand Prix, atBrno; he went on to take his second successive second-place finish, behindMika Kallio. He once again took pole at theBritish Grand Prix atSilverstone and again finished second, this time behind Championship leader and home riderScott Redding. AtMisano, Nakagami finished second for the fourth race in a row; he led the majority of the race before he was passed byPol Espargaró in the closing laps. He finished the season 8th overall with 149 points.

For 2014, Nakagami signed to ride forTadayuki 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 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, ultimately matching his 2013 result of 8th overall with 100 points.

In 2016, Nakagami scored his first victory in Assen. He collected three third-place finishes and eight top-5 finished to end the season 6th in points, his overall best finish in the Moto2 class.

Continuing with Honda Team Asia in 2017, Nakagami won at Silverstone and claimed three third-place finishes, and ranked 7th in points.

Nakagami moved up toMotoGP in2018, signing withLCR Team to ride a year-old Honda remaining withIdemitsu sponsorship.^[2] With regular finishes in the low point-scoring positions, he completed his rookie season with 33 points, and 20th in the championship.

In October 2018, it was confirmed that Nakagami would remain at LCR Honda on a 2018-spec machine for the2019 MotoGP season beside teammateCal Crutchlow.^[3] In the first half of the season he regularly achieved top 10 finishes, but a heavy crash at theDutch TT and a subsequent shoulder injury led to a drop in form. He elected to prematurely end his season afterhis home Grand Prix to undergo surgery repairing his damaged shoulder, and recover before the 2020 season.^[4] He was replaced for the final three rounds byKTM-exileJohann Zarco.^[5] Nakagami ultimately finished the season in 13th position with 74 points, more than doubling his point tally from his rookie season.

In mid-October 2019, LCR Honda confirmed Nakagami would remain with the team for another season on a year-old machinery in2020.^[6] After opening round crashes and subsequent injuries for teammate Crutchlow andHonda factory riderMarc Márquez, Nakagami quickly emerged as Honda's top rider in the first half of the season, finishing as the top Honda rider (always within the top 10) and scoring all manufacturer's championship points for the marque in the first eight rounds. At theTeruel Grand Prix, Nakagami qualified on pole position, the first pole for a Japanese rider in nearly 16 years.^[7] He finished the year 10th in the championship, with 116 points.

In October 2020, based on his strong early season performances, Honda and LCR announced that Nakagami would remain with the team at least until the end of 2022 (his first multi-year contract in the MotoGP class) and would receive factory-spec machinery from 2021.^[8] Unfortunately for Nakagami, the 2021 Honda bike was one of the weakest in recent years, with Honda drivers regularly finishing on the cusp, or sometimes even outside the top 10. Nakagami's season high result was a 4th place in Jerez, overall ending the season just 15th in the standings, with 76 points, 6 in front of teammateÁlex Márquez.

Nakagami stayed with the LCR team for 2022. It was the same story in 2022 as Honda's new machine failed to deliver an upturn in results. With a best finish of 7th he ended the season 18th in the standings with 48 points 2 points behind teammate Alex Marquez.

Nakagami stayed with the same team for the2023 season, partnering his 2023 teammateÁlex Rins. He finished p18 in the standings with 56 points 2 ahead of teammateÁlex Rins

Nakagami continued with LCR Honda, this time partnering with Johann Zarco. This was his last season in MotoGP as he opted to retire after seven full time seasons, to become a Honda factory test rider in 2025 moving into a new role in Japan.^[9]

Nakagami entered the2025 French motorcycle Grand Prix as a wildcard for the Honda team, and finished an impressive 6th in a weather-affected race.^[10]

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position, races initalics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Co-riders	Bike	Pos
2010	MuSASHi RT HARC-PRO	Ryuichi Kiyonari Takumi Takahashi	CBR1000RRW	1st
2018	Red Bull Honda with Japan Post	PJ Jacobsen Takumi Takahashi	CBR1000RRW	2nd

Wikimedia Commons has media related toTakaaki Nakagami.

• Takaaki Nakagami at MotoGP.com
• Takaaki Nakagami atAS.com (in Spanish)
• Official website

• 1992 births
• Living people
• Japanese motorcycle racers
• 125cc World Championship riders
• Moto2 World Championship riders
• Sportspeople from Chiba (city)
• Motorcycle racers from Chiba Prefecture
• LCR Team MotoGP riders
• MotoGP World Championship riders

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from October 2020
• BLP articles lacking sources from July 2025
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• Articles containing Japanese-language text
• Commons category link from Wikidata
• Articles using sports links with data from Wikidata