Stefan Bradl

Stefan Bradl
Bradl signing autographs at the 2012 Indianapolis Grand Prix.
Nationality	German
Born	29 November 1989[1] Augsburg, West Germany
Current team	Aprilia Racing Team Gresini
Bike number	6
Motorcycle racing career statistics MotoGP World Championship Active years 2012–present Manufacturers Honda (2012–2014) Yamaha Forward (2015) Aprilia (2015) 2015 championship position 18th (17 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 69 0 1 1 0 425 Moto2 World Championship Active years 2010–2011 Manufacturers Suter, Kalex Championships 1 (2011) 2011 championship position 1st (274 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 33 5 12 7 3 371 125cc World Championship Active years 2005–2009 Manufacturers KTM, Aprilia Championships 0 2009 championship position 10th (85 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 54 2 6 0 2 316

Stefan Bradl (born 29 November 1989) is a Grand Prix motorcycle racer. He is the 2011 Moto2 World Champion, and the son of former racer Helmut Bradl.

Career

125cc (2005–2009)

Born in Augsburg, West Germany, Bradl started his 125cc World Championship career in 2005 as a wild card for three races, competing in the 125cc German Championship with KTM. He took more wild card races in 2006, still with KTM. He had a terrible fracture when he was hit by another rider during practice for the 2006 Malaysian GP. Later that year he was competing again at the Red Bull MotoGP Academy.

Bradl was offered by Alberto Puig to ride his Repsol Honda factory 250cc team for 2007; he withdrew after a couple of tests, but did not stop racing. Later, he joined the 125cc Spanish Championship with Blusens Aprilia, winning the title just five points ahead of his team mate Scott Redding. Later he took a couple of wild card World Championship races, with the same team. Additionally, from the 2007 Portuguese GP onwards Blusens Aprilia Team principal Raul Romero placed him in a second bike with veteran Pablo Nieto, replacing Dutchman Hugo van den Berg.

For 2008, rather than stay with Blusens Aprilia, he decided to ride for the German Grizzly Gas Kiefer Racing, on an official factory Aprilia RSA 125. He took his first win at Brno, fittingly a track his father won at in 1991.

Moto2 (2010–2011)

2010

Bradl at the 2010 Dutch TT

After moving up to the Moto2 class of Grand Prix racing in 2010, he went on to claim ninth in the championship, with one victory at Estoril.

2011

2011 saw Bradl win four of the first six races, and maintained a healthy lead in the championship until Marc Márquez found significant speed halfway through the season. The championship seemed to be going down to the wire, with both Bradl and Márquez having a fair shot at the title with two rounds remaining. Márquez, however, suffered a heavy fall during free practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix, and was unable to race for the remainder of the season, due to eyesight problems. Bradl was therefore crowned the World Champion at the final race of the season in Valencia, Spain.

MotoGP (2012–)

2012

Bradl was signed by the LCR Honda team. He had a good season, running consistently in the top-10, with a best result of fourth place obtained at the Italian Grand Prix.^[2] He completed the season in eighth place, winning the Rookie of the Year award.^[3]

2013

Bradl battled consistently among the second group of riders, along with Valentino Rossi, Cal Crutchlow and Álvaro Bautista. The highlight of his season was a pole-position at the United States Grand Prix, at Laguna Seca,^[4] where he also finished second, achieving his first MotoGP podium. A crash towards the end of the season at the Malaysian Grand Prix – in which he broke an ankle^[5] – took him out of contention in the battle for fifth place with Bautista and Crutchlow. He closed the season in seventh place with 156 points.

2014

Bradl continued to ride for LCR Honda. However, on 2 August 2014, it was announced that Cal Crutchlow would join LCR Honda for the 2015 season and ride the factory-specification Honda RC213V.^[6] Bradl subsequently announced a move to the NGM Forward Racing team for 2015, riding an open-specification bike.^[7]

2015

For the 2015 season, Bradl moved to Forward Racing, riding a Yamaha Forward – where he was joined by Loris Baz, moving into the series from the Superbike World Championship. At the midway point of the season, Bradl had collected 9 points, despite missing his home race at the Sanchsenring due to injury.^[8] After the summer break, Bradl parted company with the team, following the arrest of team boss Giovanni Cuzari. In August, Bradl joined Gresini Racing for the remainder of the season.^[9] His partnership with Gresini started with a 20th at Indianapolis, and scored his first points for the team, with 14th at Brno.

Career statistics

By season

Season	Class	Motorcycle	Team	Race	Win	Pod	Pole	FLap	Pts	Pos
2005	125cc	KTM	Red Bull ADAC KTM Juniors	3	0	0	0	0	1	35th
2006	125cc	KTM	Red Bull KTM Junior Team	9	0	0	0	0	4	26th
2007	125cc	Aprilia	Blusens Aprilia	9	0	0	0	0	39	18th
2008	125cc	Aprilia	Grizzly Gas Kiefer Racing	17	2	6	0	2	187	4th
2009	125cc	Aprilia	Viessmann Kiefer Racing	16	0	0	0	0	85	10th
2010	Moto2	Suter-Honda	Viessmann Kiefer Racing	16	1	1	0	0	97	9th
2011	Moto2	Kalex-Honda	Viessmann Kiefer Racing	17	4	11	7	3	274	1st
2012	MotoGP	Honda	LCR Honda MotoGP	18	0	0	0	0	135	8th
2013	MotoGP	Honda	LCR Honda MotoGP	16	0	1	1	0	156	7th
2014	MotoGP	Honda	LCR Honda MotoGP	18	0	0	0	0	117	9th
2015	MotoGP	Yamaha Forward	Athinà Forward Racing	17	0	0	0	0	17	18th
		Aprilia	Aprilia Racing Team Gresini
Total				156	7	19	8	5	1112

By class

Class	Seasons	1st GP	1st Pod	1st Win	Race	Win	Pod	Pole	FLap	Pts	WChmp
125 cc	2005–2009	2005 Catalunya	2008 Qatar	2008 Czech Republic	54	2	6	0	2	316	0
Moto2	2010–2011	2010 Qatar	2010 Portugal	2010 Portugal	33	5	12	7	3	371	1
MotoGP	2012–2015	2012 Qatar	2013 United States		69	0	1	1	0	425	0
Total	2005–Present				156	7	19	8	5	1112	1

Races by year

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

Yr	Class	Bike	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	Pos	Pts
2005	125cc	KTM	SPA	POR	CHN	FRA	ITA	CAT Ret	NED	GBR	GER 16	CZE 15	JPN	MAL	QAT	AUS	TUR	VAL			35th	1
2006	125cc	KTM	SPA	QAT 26	TUR 19	CHN 20	FRA 18	ITA 16	CAT	NED 31	GBR Ret	GER 18	CZE 12	MAL DNS	AUS	JPN	POR	VAL			26th	4
2007	125cc	Aprilia	QAT	SPA	TUR	CHN	FRA	ITA	CAT 9	GBR	NED 10	GER 13	CZE	RSM 7	POR 6	JPN 15	AUS Ret	MAL 13	VAL Ret		18th	39
2008	125cc	Aprilia	QAT 3	SPA 4	POR 8	CHN 5	FRA 6	ITA 10	CAT 4	GBR Ret	NED 12	GER 2	CZE 1	RSM Ret	IND 3	JPN 1	AUS 2	MAL Ret	VAL Ret		4th	187
2009	125cc	Aprilia	QAT 8	JPN 4	SPA Ret	FRA Ret	ITA 8	CAT 7	NED 6	GER Ret	GBR Ret	CZE 7	IND 7	RSM 6	POR 4	AUS Ret	MAL Ret	VAL Ret			10th	85
2010	Moto2	Suter	QAT Ret	SPA 14	FRA 9	ITA 14	GBR Ret	NED 19	CAT	GER 9	CZE 9	IND Ret	RSM 5	ARA 9	JPN 7	MAL 7	AUS 5	POR 1	VAL Ret		9th	97
2011	Moto2	Kalex	QAT 1	SPA 5	POR 1	FRA 3	CAT 1	GBR 1	NED Ret	ITA 2	GER 2	CZE 3	IND 6	RSM 2	ARA 8	JPN 4	AUS 2	MAL 2	VAL Ret		1st	274
2012	MotoGP	Honda	QAT 8	SPA 7	POR 9	FRA 5	CAT 8	GBR 8	NED Ret	GER 5	ITA 4	USA 7	IND 6	CZE 5	RSM 6	ARA Ret	JPN 6	MAL Ret	AUS 6	VAL Ret	8th	135
2013	MotoGP	Honda	QAT Ret	AME 5	SPA Ret	FRA 10	ITA 4	CAT 5	NED 6	GER 4	USA 2	IND 7	CZE 6	GBR 6	RSM 5	ARA 5	MAL DNS	AUS DNS	JPN 5	VAL 6	7th	156
2014	MotoGP	Honda	QAT Ret	AME 4	ARG 5	SPA 10	FRA 7	ITA Ret	CAT 5	NED 10	GER 16	IND Ret	CZE 7	GBR 7	RSM Ret	ARA 4	JPN 7	AUS Ret	MAL 4	VAL 8	9th	117
2015	MotoGP	Yamaha Forward	QAT 16	AME Ret	ARG 15	SPA 16	FRA Ret	ITA Ret	CAT 8	NED Ret	GER										18th	17
		Aprilia										IND 20	CZE 14	GBR Ret	RSM 16	ARA 18	JPN 18	AUS 21	MAL 10	VAL 18
2016	MotoGP	Aprilia	QAT Ret	ARG 7	AME 10	SPA 14	FRA	ITA	CAT	NED	GER	IND	CZE	GBR	RSM	ARA	JPN	AUS	MAL	VAL	13th*	17*

References

1. MotoGP profile
2. "Bradl edging towards first MotoGP podium". Crash.net (Crash Media Group). 15 July 2012. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
3. "FIM Awards Ceremony in Valencia rounds off 2012 season". motogp.com (Dorna Sports). 11 November 2012. Retrieved 7 May 2014.
4. English, Stephen (22 July 2013). "US MotoGP: Bradl makes it happen for debut podium". Crash.net (Crash Media Group). Retrieved 21 July 2015.
5. "Bradl on sidelines with fractured ankle". motogp.com (Dorna Sports). 12 October 2013. Retrieved 7 May 2014.
6. "Crutchlow to ride with CWM-LCR Honda in 2015". MotoGP.com (Dorna Sports). 2 August 2014. Retrieved 10 August 2014.
7. "NGM Forward Racing sign Bradl for 2015". MotoGP.com (Dorna Sports). 6 August 2014. Retrieved 10 August 2014.
8. "MotoGP Germany: Bradl out of home round, Corti to replace". Crash.net (Crash Media Group). 6 July 2015. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
9. "Bradl signs for Aprilia Racing Team Gresini". MotoGP.com (Dorna Sports). 1 August 2015. Retrieved 9 August 2015.

External links

• Official website
• Rider profile on MotoGP.com
• Stefan Bradl Profile at Yahoo! Sport