Mike Di Meglio

Mike Di Meglio (born 17 January 1988) is a French Grand Prix motorcycle road racer and 2008 world champion^[2] in the 125cc class. Of Italian descent, his paternal grandfather was born in Lentini (Province of Siracusa).

Di Meglio first came to the attention of the Fédération Française de Motocyclisme (French Motorcycle Federation) 2002 Prix de l'Avenir. He also took a trial with the Liegois team in Carole, with whom he took part in a Spanish Championship race. Later he raced at world championship level in 2003

Biography

Di Meglio was born in Toulouse.

2003, Debut with Aprilia, switch to Honda later

When Di Meglio turned 15 years old, he decided to accept offers by the Italian Freesoul Racing Team on Aprilia to debut in the 125cc world championship in 2003. Although he managed to score points, including 13th place at Catalunya, it was a difficult season for him, crashing often and not achieving good results. Later, at the mid-season, he was offered by the Italian MetaSystem Rg Service to replace Italian veteran Andrea Ballerini, but this time the team was on Honda, he tried to attempt to achieve his goals, but he failed to improve and didn't score any championship points.

2004, Ride with Globet.com, first front-row start and first top five finish

After a disappointing 2003, Di Meglio vowed to salvage a wrecked debut. He signed with Globet.com Racing on Aprilia alongside Gino Borsoi for the 2004 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season. The start was promising with a front-row start and a fifth-place finish at South Africa, but he failed to be consistent due to several crashes.

2005, Ride with Team Scot, first podium and first win

Di Meglio stayed with the same team for 2005, but his team joined forces with Team Scot which runs on Honda machinery, the same team that helped Andrea Dovizioso win the 2004 125cc World Championship. Di Meglio was their official rider on board on a factory Honda RS125RW along with Fabrizio Lai but it was under the Kopron Racing World name. His performance improved, scoring points regularly. He performed heroically at the French Grand Prix by fighting for a podium position, finishing fourth and making his home fans happy and entertained. However, it was his podium finish in the wet British Grand Prix by finishing second place behind Julián Simón, which gave him a reputation as a wet weather expert. He also finished a credible fourth place in the hot Qatar Grand Prix ahead of future 125cc champion Thomas Luthi. The high point of the season for the Frenchman was his controversial win at the Turkish Grand Prix, when Mika Kallio crashed and race leader Luthi had run wide to avoid him.

2006, Ride with FFM Honda GP 125cc. Disaster strikes

He joined the Fédération Française de Motocyclisme's world championship team run by Alain Bronec for 2006. The FFM Honda GP 125 team also provided him with a factory bike just like the previous season, but despite his big ambitions & a factory bike, he suffered an injury, & a huge blow, just scoring only four races that resulted into eight points only. He left the team immediately for Team Scot the following year after Portugal as the result of his performance with the team.

2007, Return to Team Scot. Master of wet races

For 2007, Di Meglio returned to Team Scot, the team that had helped him win his first Grand Prix in 2005. He was teamed with the young Italian Stefano Musco. In the first few races, he managed to score championship points. He had a very bad crash during the qualifying session of the Spanish Grand Prix, breaking his collarbone and was forced to miss the Turkish Grand Prix as a result. He returned in China to a fourteenth-place finish and followed that with a ninth place at Le Mans. A front row start at Mugello did not come to much either as he crashed out on the third lap of the race. After this, several disappointing race results followed except in the wet race at Donington, where he finished in sixth place and in Japan, where he finished fourth despite crashing out of second place while chasing race leader Mattia Pasini.

2008, Ride with Ajo Motorsport and maiden world title

For 2008, he was offered to ride with the Finnish Ajo Motorsport, teamed with Dominique Aegerter. He returned to Aprilia machines, but officially rides for Aprilia's sister Piaggio company, Derbi. He is riding the Derbi RSA 125 factory bike. His campaign started slowly within Qatar finishing in fourth, beaten to the podium at the line by Stefan Bradl. In Spain and Portugal, Di Meglio picked up minor points and trailed title contender Simone Corsi, but starting in China, Corsi's pace started to slip away including a crash from a minor incident with Lorenzo Zanetti and reigning world champion Gábor Talmácsi struggling that allow Di Meglio to take full advantage. A win in the shortened French Grand Prix started a consistent run lasting until at San Marino where he crashed out while fighting for third place with Corsi. At the Australian Grand Prix, Di Meglio became the only second Frenchman to win the world championship after Arnaud Vincent.

2009, Move to 250cc Class with Mapfre Aspar Team

For 2009, he moved up to the 250cc class with the Aspar Racing Team, alongside Álvaro Bautista. In his debut race in Qatar he qualified third but dropped to 11th on lap 1, before fighting back. He ran fifth in the later stages, but aggressively passed Bautista on the final lap before passing Raffaele de Rosa for third. He did not take another top five finish until round ten at Donington, but hit form from this point on. He took pole at Indianapolis, and claimed second place at Estoril in a photo-finish with Héctor Barberá. He was fighting for top rookie honours with de Rosa but lost out to him as a result of crashing out in Valencia while de Rosa finished third.

2010, Ride in Moto2 still with Mapfre Aspar Team

The 2010 saw the debut of the Moto2 class as the new intermediate class of Grand Prix racing, replacing the 250cc class. Di Meglio failed to take full advantage of it, with several poor race finishes in the first three races of the season and a crash at Mugello. Di Meglio took his first points-scoring finishes at British and Dutch rounds with seventh & eighth respectively. Despite his good results at those rounds, he failed to be competitive again until Australia where he finished in sixth place, having started on the front row.

Grand Prix motorcycle racing career

By class

Class	Seasons	1st GP	1st Pod	1st Win	Race	Win	Podiums	Pole	FLap	Pts	WChmp
125 cc	2003–2008	2003 Japan	2005 Great Britain	2005 Turkey	91	5	11	2	4	464	1
250 cc	2009	2009 Qatar	2009 Qatar		16	0	2	1	0	107	0
Moto2	2010–2013	2010 Qatar			59	0	0	0	0	100	0
MotoGP	2014–2015	2014 Qatar			36	0	0	0	0	17	0
Total	2003–Present				202	5	13	3	4	688

By seasons and teams

Season	Class	Team	Moto	Races	Wins	Podiums	Poles	Fastest Laps	Pts	Position
2003	125cc	Freesoul Racing Team	Aprilia	10	0	0	0	0	5	28th
2003	125cc	MetaSystem Rg Service	Honda	5	0	0	0	0	0	28th
2004	125cc	Globet. com Racing	Aprilia	14	0	0	0	0	41	18th
2005	125cc	Kopron Racing World	Honda	16	1	2	0	0	104	11th
2006	125cc	FFM Honda GP 125	Honda	14	0	0	0	0	8	25th
2007	125cc	Kopron Team Scot	Honda	15	0	0	0	0	42	17th
2008	125cc	Ajo Motorsport	Derbi	17	4	9	2	4	264	1st
2009	250cc	Mapfre Aspar team	Aprilia	16	0	2	1	0	107	8th
2010	Moto2	Bancaja Aspar Racing Team	RSV	16	0	0	0	0	34	20th
2010	Moto2	Bancaja Aspar Racing Team	Suter	16	0	0	0	0	34	20th
2011	Moto2	Tech 3	Tech 3	17	0	0	0	0	30	23rd
2012	Moto2	Speed Master Speed Up	Speed Up	16	0	0	0	0	17	22nd
		Cresto Guide MZ Racing Team	MZ-RE Honda
		Kiefer Racing	Kalex
2013	Moto2	JiR	Motobi	10	0	0	0	0	19	20th
2014	MotoGP	Avintia Racing	Avintia	18	0	0	0	0	9	25th
2015	MotoGP	Avintia Racing	Ducati	18	0	0	0	0	8	24th
Total				202	5	13	3	4	688

Races by year

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

Year	Class	Bike	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	Pos	Pts
2003	125cc	Aprilia	JPN 22	RSA 22	SPA 28	FRA 17	ITA Ret	CAT 13	NED 19	GBR 15	GER Ret	CZE 15	POR								28th	5
2003	125cc	Honda												BRA Ret	PAC Ret	MAL 22	AUS Ret	VAL Ret			28th	5
2004	125cc	Aprilia	RSA 5	SPA Ret	FRA Ret	ITA Ret	CAT 8	NED 12	BRA 12	GER Ret	GBR 15	CZE 24	POR 11	JPN Ret	QAT	MAL 17	AUS 8	VAL			18th	41
2005	125cc	Honda	SPA 11	POR 11	CHN 20	FRA 4	ITA Ret	CAT 16	NED 14	GBR 2	GER Ret	CZE 7	JPN 11	MAL 11	QAT 4	AUS 14	TUR 1	VAL Ret			11th	104
2006	125cc	Honda	SPA 21	QAT Ret	TUR Ret	CHN 15	FRA 27	ITA Ret	CAT 18	NED 13	GBR 16	GER	CZE 13	MAL Ret	AUS 15	JPN Ret	POR Ret	VAL			25th	8
2007	125cc	Honda	QAT 14	SPA	TUR	CHN 14	FRA 9	ITA Ret	CAT 19	GBR 6	NED Ret	GER 15	CZE 20	RSM 13	POR 16	JPN 4	AUS 14	MAL 14	VAL 23		17th	42
2008	125cc	Derbi	QAT 4	SPA 9	POR 7	CHN 2	FRA 1	ITA 4	CAT 1	GBR 2	NED 7	GER 1	CZE 2	RSM Ret	IND 10	JPN 2	AUS 1	MAL 5	VAL 3		1st	264
2009	250cc	Aprilia	QAT 3	JPN Ret	SPA 11	FRA Ret	ITA 12	CAT 14	NED 11	GER Ret	GBR 5	CZE 9	IND 4	RSM 5	POR 2	AUS 5	MAL Ret	VAL 14			8th	107
2010	Moto2	RSV	QAT 16	SPA 22																	20th	34
2010	Moto2	Suter			FRA 20	ITA Ret	GBR 7	NED 8	CAT Ret	GER Ret	CZE 20	IND 12	RSM Ret	ARA 13	JPN 18	MAL 26	AUS 6	POR DNQ	VAL 26		20th	34
2011	Moto2	Tech 3	QAT 19	SPA 26	POR 9	FRA Ret	CAT Ret	GBR 17	NED Ret	ITA 24	GER 16	CZE 15	IND 27	RSM 16	ARA 12	JPN 27	AUS 9	MAL 14	VAL 7		23rd	30
2012	Moto2	Speed Up	QAT 7	SPA Ret	POR Ret	FRA Ret	CAT Ret	GBR 18	NED 15	GER											22nd	17
		MZ-RE Honda									ITA 22	IND 24	CZE 16
		Kalex												RSM 18	ARA 13	JPN 14	MAL Ret	AUS 14	VAL 28
2013	Moto2	Motobi	QAT 16	AME 10	SPA 19	FRA 7	ITA 18	CAT 12	NED Ret	GER 24	IND 20	CZE Ret	GBR	RSM	ARA	MAL	AUS	JPN	VAL		20th	19
2014	MotoGP	Avintia	QAT 17	AME 18	ARG 19	SPA Ret	FRA 19	ITA 18	CAT Ret	NED 20	GER 22	IND 12	CZE 18	GBR 20	RSM Ret	ARA 17	JPN 19	AUS 14	MAL 13	VAL 21	25th	9
2015	MotoGP	Ducati	QAT 19	AME Ret	ARG 18	SPA 22	FRA Ret	ITA 16	CAT 14	NED 18	GER Ret	IND 17	CZE 18	GBR 14	RSM 13	ARA 20	JPN 15	AUS 20	MAL 18	VAL Ret	24th	8

References

External links

Preceded by Gábor Talmácsi	125 cc Motorcycle World Champion 2008	Succeeded by Julián Simón

Aspar Racing Team

MotoGP: Eugene Laverty (50) Yonny Hernández (68)

Moto3: Francesco Bagnaia (21) Jorge Martín (88)

Grand Prix motorcycles : Ducati Desmosedici (MotoGP) Mahindra MGP3O (Moto3)

125cc/Moto3 Motorcycle World Champions

1949 – N. Pagani

1950 – B. Ruffo
1951 – C. Ubbiali
1952 – C. Sandford
1953 – W. Haas
1954 – R. Hollaus
1955 – C. Ubbiali
1956 – C. Ubbiali
1957 – T. Provini
1958 – C. Ubbiali
1959 – C. Ubbiali

1960 – C. Ubbiali
1961 – T. Phillis
1962 – L. Taveri
1963 – H. Anderson
1964 – L. Taveri
1965 – H. Anderson
1966 – L. Taveri
1967 – B. Ivy
1968 – P. Read
1969 – D. Simmonds

1970 – D. Braun
1971 – Á. Nieto
1972 – Á. Nieto
1973 – K. Andersson
1974 – K. Andersson
1975 – P. Pileri
1976 – P. Bianchi
1977 – P. Bianchi
1978 – E. Lazzarini
1979 – Á. Nieto

1980 – P. Bianchi
1981 – Á. Nieto
1982 – Á. Nieto
1983 – Á. Nieto
1984 – Á. Nieto
1985 – F. Gresini
1986 – L. Cadalora
1987 – F. Gresini
1988 – J. Martínez
1989 – À. Crivillé

1990 – L. Capirossi
1991 – L. Capirossi
1992 – A. Gramigni
1993 – D. Raudies
1994 – K. Sakata
1995 – H. Aoki
1996 – H. Aoki
1997 – V. Rossi
1998 – K. Sakata
1999 – E. Alzamora

2000 – R. Locatelli
2001 – M. Poggiali
2002 – A. Vincent
2003 – D. Pedrosa
2004 – A. Dovizioso
2005 – T. Lüthi
2006 – Á. Bautista
2007 – G. Talmácsi
2008 – M. Di Meglio
2009 – J. Simón

2010 – M. Márquez
2011 – N. Terol
2012 – S. Cortese
2013 – M. Viñales
2014 – Á. Márquez
2015 – D. Kent

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