Thomas Lüthi

Thomas Lüthi
Lüthi at the 2009 British Grand Prix.
Nationality	Swiss
Born	6 September 1986[1] Oberdiessbach, Switzerland
Current team	Garage Plus Interwetten
Bike number	12
Website	thomasluethi.ch
Motorcycle racing career statistics Moto2 World Championship Active years 2010–2016 Manufacturers Moriwaki, Suter, Kalex Championships 0 2015 championship position 5th (179 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 103 6 30 3 11 1051 250cc World Championship Active years 2007–2009 Manufacturers Aprilia Championships 0 2009 championship position 7th (120 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 47 0 2 0 0 361 125cc World Championship Active years 2002–2006 Manufacturers Honda Championships 1 (2005) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 67 5 10 5 1 444

Thomas Lüthi (born 6 September 1986) is a professional motorcycle road racer currently competing in the Moto2 Grand Prix World Championship.

Early life

Lüthi was born in Oberdiessbach, Kanton Bern, Switzerland, but grew up in Emmental. Lüthi started racing pocket bikes at the age of nine. He won pocket bike championships in 1999 and 2000. In 2002, he finished second overall in the European 125cc Championship, and third in the German 125cc series.

125cc

Lüthi made his first 125cc World Championship appearance at the 2002 German Grand Prix, which he finished in 26th place.

In the 2003 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season, Lüthi was invited by Daniel Epp to ride for his team, known as the "Elit Grand Prix Team"; Epp became his manager. Lüthi scored his first podium in Barcelona and ended in second place. In 2004, he retired from four races in a row, missed four races because of injury, and scored 14 points.

Andy Ibbott of California Superbike School started training Thomas during the 2005 season. Lüthi scored his first 125cc class Grand Prix win in 2005 at Le Mans, followed by three more victories that season, including one at his team's home race at Brno, Czech Republic. On 6 November 2005 Lüthi secured his first world championship in the 125cc class, the sixth-youngest person to do so; this took place at Valencia. While using a Honda RS125R kit, Lüthi won the world championship title in the 125cc class, being five points ahead of Mika Kallio. Lüthi was voted Swiss sportsman of the year in 2005 and also won the annual "Swiss Award" in the category of sport.

After winning the 2005 125cc World Championship, he was partnered by Sandro Cortese of Germany and the team name was changed to "Elit — Caffè Latte". He scored his only win and only podium of the season at the 2006 French Grand Prix. He lost his championship title to Álvaro Bautista.

250cc

After the 2006 season, Lüthi moved on to 250cc. The team changed their name to "Emmi — Caffè Latte", and defected to Aprilia, racing on the Aprilia RSA 250.

For 2008, Lüthi continued with the Aprilia RSA 250. Daniel Epp also ran an Aprillia LE for Lukáš Pešek, under the Auto Kelly - CP branding. Lüthi did not have any podiums until the 2008 Italian GP, where he finished at the podium in third place. At Assen, he finished in second place behind Álvaro Bautista. At Brno, Lüthi crashed out of the race due to an apparent brake failure.

In 2009, he finished seventh overall in 250cc, although without a podium.

Moto2

For 2010, he remained with the team in the Moto2 class that replaced the 250cc category. At Silverstone, Lüthi finished in second place. Lüthi finished in third place at Assen, which was a position he acquired on the last lap after being in first place earlier in the race.^[2] Lüthi had a collarbone injury during those two races.^[3]

Grand Prix career statistics

All statistics are from MotoGP.com^[4]

By season

Season	Class	Motorcycle	Type	Races	Wins	Podiums	Poles	FLaps	Pts	Plcd
2002	125cc	Honda	Honda RS125R	7	0	0	0	0	7	27th
2003	125cc	Honda	Honda RS125R	15	0	1	0	0	68	15th
2004	125cc	Honda	Honda RS125R	13	0	0	0	0	14	25th
2005	125cc	Honda	Honda RS125R	16	4	8	5	1	242	1st
2006	125cc	Honda	Honda RS125R	16	1	1	0	0	113	8th
2007	250cc	Aprilia	Aprilia RSA 250	17	0	0	0	0	133	8th
2008	250cc	Aprilia	Aprilia RSA 250	14	0	2	0	0	108	11th
2009	250cc	Aprilia	Aprilia RSA 250	16	0	0	0	0	120	7th
2010	Moto2	Moriwaki	Moriwaki MD600	17	0	5	0	2	156	4th
2011	Moto2	Suter	Suter MMX2	17	1	4	1	0	151	5th
2012	Moto2	Suter	Suter MMX2	17	1	6	1	3	191	4th
2013	Moto2	Suter	Suter MMX2	15	0	6	0	1	155	6th
2014	Moto2	Suter	Suter MMX2	18	2	4	0	2	194	4th
2015	Moto2	Kalex	Kalex Moto2 2014	18	1	4	1	3	179	5th
2016	Moto2	Kalex	Kalex Moto2	1	1	1	0	0	25*	1st*
Total				217	11	42	8	12	1856

* Season still in progress.

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
2002	125cc	Honda	JPN	RSA	SPA	FRA	ITA	CAT	NED	GBR	GER 26	CZE 19	POR 9	BRA 24	PAC	MAL 21	AUS Ret	VAL 24			27th	7
2003	125cc	Honda	JPN 9	RSA 17	SPA 12	FRA 9	ITA 15	CAT 2	NED 7	GBR 22	GER Ret	CZE Ret	POR Ret	BRA 15	PAC 10	MAL 4	AUS 16	VAL DNS			15th	68
2004	125cc	Honda	RSA Ret	SPA Ret	FRA Ret	ITA Ret	CAT	NED	BRA	GER 18	GBR 18	CZE 18	POR 16	JPN 12	QAT 13	MAL 11	AUS 19	VAL 14			25th	14
2005	125cc	Honda	SPA Ret	POR 3	CHN 4	FRA 1	ITA 2	CAT 7	NED 10	GBR 6	GER 2	CZE 1	JPN 2	MAL 1	QAT 6	AUS 1	TUR 5	VAL 9			1st	242
2006	125cc	Honda	SPA Ret	QAT 8	TUR 12	CHN Ret	FRA 1	ITA 9	CAT 6	NED 8	GBR 8	GER 6	CZE 5	MAL 13	AUS 4	JPN Ret	POR Ret	VAL 10			8th	113
2007	250cc	Aprilia	QAT 4	SPA Ret	TUR 5	CHN 8	FRA Ret	ITA 5	CAT 4	GBR Ret	NED Ret	GER 9	CZE 7	RSM 4	POR 4	JPN 10	AUS 5	MAL 5	VAL 9		8th	133
2008	250cc	Aprilia	QAT 15	SPA Ret	POR 4	CHN Ret	FRA 11	ITA 3	CAT 5	GBR 5	NED 2	GER 7	CZE Ret	RSM 7	IND C	JPN	AUS	MAL 9	VAL 10		11th	108
2009	250cc	Aprilia	QAT 6	JPN 8	SPA 5	FRA Ret	ITA 4	CAT 6	NED Ret	GER 8	GBR 9	CZE Ret	IND 9	RSM 10	POR 7	AUS 11	MAL 4	VAL 4			7th	120
2010	Moto2	Moriwaki	QAT 7	SPA 3	FRA 19	ITA 4	GBR 2	NED 3	CAT 2	GER Ret	CZE 11	IND 7	RSM 3	ARA 10	JPN 8	MAL Ret	AUS 11	POR 16	VAL 4		4th	156
2011	Moto2	Suter	QAT 3	SPA 2	POR Ret	FRA 5	CAT Ret	GBR 15	NED 8	ITA 6	GER 5	CZE 5	IND 17	RSM 8	ARA 7	JPN 3	AUS 11	MAL 1	VAL 17		5th	151
2012	Moto2	Suter	QAT 5	SPA 3	POR 3	FRA 1	CAT 2	GBR 8	NED Ret	GER 5	ITA 3	IND 5	CZE 2	RSM 9	ARA 10	JPN 5	MAL Ret	AUS Ret	VAL 4		4th	191
2013	Moto2	Suter	QAT	AME DNS	SPA 11	FRA Ret	ITA 9	CAT 3	NED 8	GER 6	IND 13	CZE 3	GBR 3	RSM 4	ARA Ret	MAL 3	AUS 2	JPN 3	VAL 7		6th	155
2014	Moto2	Suter	QAT 3	AME 6	ARG 19	SPA 10	FRA 8	ITA Ret	CAT 5	NED 6	GER 9	IND Ret	CZE 4	GBR 5	RSM 5	ARA 4	JPN 1	AUS 2	MAL 8	VAL 1	4th	194
2015	Moto2	Kalex	QAT 3	AME 12	ARG 6	SPA 4	FRA 1	ITA Ret	CAT 6	NED 5	GER 6	IND 6	CZE 7	GBR 9	RSM 10	ARA 5	JPN Ret	AUS 15	MAL 2	VAL 3	5th	179
2016	Moto2	Kalex	QAT 1	ARG 7	AME 7	SPA	FRA	ITA	CAT	NED	GER	AUT	CZE	GBR	RSM	ARA	JPN	AUS	MAL	VAL	4th*	43*

* Season still in progress.

References

1. Official MotoGP profile
2. "Another Iannone runaway at Assen". crash.net (Crash Media Group). 26 June 2010. Retrieved 26 June 2010.
3. "Luthi to ride fresh from surgery". crash.net (Crash Media Group). 1 July 2010. Retrieved 2 July 2010.
4. "Thomas Luthi". MotoGP.com. Retrieved 3 November 2008.

External links

• (German) Official website
• (German) Schweizer Fanpage
• (German) Die Homepage des deutschen Fanclubs
• (German) Tom Lüthi ist der «Star des Jahres» von www.startalk.ch
• (German) Radio Basilisk-Interview nach dem 1. Sieg in Le Mans (wma, schweizerdeutsch)