Yuki Takahashi

Yuki Takahashi (高橋裕紀, Takahashi Yuki, born July 12, 1984^[1]) is a Japanese Grand Prix motorcycle road racer. He currently races in the All Japan Road Race JSB1000 Championship aboard a Honda CBR1000RR and in the Asia Road Race SS600 Championship aboard a Honda CBR600RR. For 2009 he made his debut in the MotoGP class, with the Scot Racing Honda team but was subsequently dropped by the team after just seven rounds of the 2009 season due to financial issues. Until that point, he had spent his entire career with Honda.

Career

Early years

Born in Saitama, Saitama, Takahashi developed his talents through an HRC Racing Scholarship, a program which has supported many young Japanese riders and aims to help them into the top level of competition. He made a wild card appearance in the 125cc World Championship in Japan in 2001. Between 2002 and 2004 he made four wild card appearances in his home country in the 250cc World Championship, finishing in the top five in all four. He won the MFJ All Japan Road Race GP250 Championship in 2004, having previously finished runner-up in the MFJ All Japan Road Race GP125 Championship in 2001.

250cc World Championship

Takahashi at the 2008 Japanese Grand Prix, riding a Honda.

He became a full-time 250cc World Championship rider in 2005, finishing eleventh overall on a Honda. For 2006 and beyond Honda did not develop their 250cc two-stroke racing machine, but Takahashi was still able to take two wins and sixth overall. He came eleventh overall without a podium in 2007 as the team began to struggle, but in 2008 he took three podium finishes, and qualified eighth and finished sixth in his home race. In his final 250cc appearance at Valencia he qualified tenth, but rode well, finishing second. He ended up in fifth place in the final standings: his best performance since starting to compete in the World Championship.^[2]

MotoGP

For the 2009 season he was handed a MotoGP spot for Team Scot Honda, thus replacing his former 250cc team-mate Andrea Dovizioso who headed for HRC's official Repsol Honda outfit.^[3] After the JiR Team Scot team split, JiR attempted to remain in the class with Ben Spies, but Honda opted to support Team Scot instead. Takahashi struggled early in the season, with a best finish of twelfth at the Circuit de Catalunya. He crashed on the first lap there, and also had an early collision with Nicky Hayden on his home round.

On 1 July 2009 it was announced that the Scot Honda team would be terminating Takahashi's contract with immediate effect due to financial constraints.^[4] He was replaced by Hungarian rider Gábor Talmácsi. It marked the first time since 1991 that no Japanese rider was competing in the premier category.

Moto2

Takahashi has dropped down into the new Moto2 class for 2010, partnering Raffaele de Rosa at Tech 3.^[5] He took his first victory in the class at Barcelona, after a ride-through penalty for Andrea Iannone.^[6] He finished the season 12th overall, for 2011 he signed to ride for Gresini Racing aboard a Moriwaki, he took 2 podium finishes and finished 11th overall. For 2012 he joined NGM Mobile Forward Racing and rode a Suter for the first six rounds and a FTR for the remainder of the championship, the season was a disaster as Takahashi only failed to score points until the final round of the season at Valencia. He remained in Moto2 for 2013 and joined IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia, ran by Tadayuki Okada and rode a Moriwaki once again. Takahashi was dropped in favour of Azlan Shah Kamaruzaman for the Misano round onwards after failing to score a point in the opening 11 rounds.

Career statistics

By season

Season	Class	Moto	Team	Races	Win	Podiums	Pts	Position
2001	125cc	Honda		1	0	0	0	N/A
2002	250cc	Honda		1	0	1	16	21st
2003	250cc	Honda		2	0	1	29	18th
2004	250cc	Honda		1	0	0	11	25th
2005	250cc	Honda		16	0	0	77	11th
2006	250cc	Honda		14	2	2	156	6th
2007	250cc	Honda		15	0	0	90	11th
2008	250cc	Honda		16	0	3	167	5th
2009	MotoGP	Honda	Team Scot	7	0	0	9	21st
2010	Moto2	Tech 3	Tech 3 Racing	17	1	2	86	12th
2011	Moto2	Moriwaki	Gresini Racing	17	0	2	77	11th
2012	Moto2	Suter	Forward Racing	17	0	0	5	28th
2012	Moto2	FTR	Forward Racing	17	0	0	5	28th
2013	Moto2	Moriwaki	IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia	11	0	0	0	NC
2014	Moto2	Moriwaki	Moriwaki Racing	1	0	0	0	NC
2015	Moto2	Moriwaki	Moriwaki Racing	1	0	0	2	27th
Total				137	3	11	725

By class

Class	Season	1st GP	1st Pod	1st Win	Race	Win	Podiums	Pts	WChmp
125 cc	2001	2001 Pacific			1	0	0	0	0
250 cc	2002–2008	2002 Pacific	2002 Pacific	2006 France	65	2	7	546	0
MotoGP	2009	2009 Qatar			7	0	0	9	0
Moto2	2010–2015	2010 Qatar	2010 Catalunya	2010 Catalunya	64	1	4	170	0
Total	2002–2015				137	3	11	725

Races by year

(key)

Year	Class	Bike	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	Pos	Pts
2001	125cc	Honda	JPN	RSA	SPA	FRA	ITA	CAT	NED	GBR	GER	CZE	POR	VAL	PAC Ret	AUS	MAL	BRA			NC	0
2002	250cc	Honda	JPN	RSA	SPA	FRA	ITA	CAT	NED	GBR	GER	CZE	POR	BRA	PAC 3	MAL	AUS	VAL			21st	16
2003	250cc	Honda	JPN 3	RSA	SPA	FRA	ITA	CAT	NED	GBR	GER	CZE	POR	BRA	PAC 4	MAL	AUS	VAL			18th	29
2004	250cc	Honda	RSA	SPA	FRA	ITA	CAT	NED	BRA	GER	GBR	CZE	POR	JPN 5	QAT	MAL	AUS	VAL			25th	11
2005	250cc	Honda	SPA Ret	POR 7	CHN 10	FRA 10	ITA Ret	CAT 7	NED 15	GBR Ret	GER 9	CZE Ret	JPN 4	MAL 7	QAT 8	AUS Ret	TUR Ret	VAL 7			11th	77
2006	250cc	Honda	SPA 4	QAT 9	TUR 5	CHN 5	FRA 1	ITA 4	CAT 7	NED 6	GBR 7	GER 1	CZE	MAL 4	AUS Ret	JPN Ret	POR 6	VAL DNS			6th	156
2007	250cc	Honda	QAT 7	SPA 8	TUR Ret	CHN DNS	FRA	ITA 11	CAT Ret	GBR 4	NED 10	GER 8	CZE Ret	RSM 9	POR Ret	JPN 4	AUS 10	MAL 9	VAL 8		11th	90
2008	250cc	Honda	QAT 5	SPA 3	POR 6	CHN 7	FRA 4	ITA Ret	CAT 12	GBR 9	NED 8	GER 9	CZE 6	RSM 2	IND C	JPN 6	AUS 7	MAL 4	VAL 2		5th	167
2009	MotoGP	Honda	QAT 15	JPN Ret	SPA 12	FRA 13	ITA Ret	CAT Ret	NED 15	USA	GER	GBR	CZE	IND	RSM	POR	AUS	MAL	VAL		21st	9
2010	Moto2	Tech 3	QAT Ret	SPA 4	FRA Ret	ITA 8	GBR 18	NED 10	CAT 1	GER Ret	CZE 2	IND 26	RSM Ret	ARA 12	JPN 6	MAL Ret	AUS 17	POR 26	VAL 18		12th	86
2011	Moto2	Moriwaki	QAT 5	SPA Ret	POR 3	FRA 2	CAT Ret	GBR 7	NED Ret	ITA 14	GER Ret	CZE 12	IND 25	RSM 7	ARA 31	JPN 30	AUS 10	MAL Ret	VAL Ret		11th	77
2012	Moto2	Suter	QAT 19	SPA 21	POR Ret	FRA 17	CAT 21	GBR 25													28th	5
2012	Moto2	FTR							NED 20	GER Ret	ITA 17	IND 27	CZE 18	RSM Ret	ARA 22	JPN 15	MAL 15	AUS 15	VAL 14		28th	5
2013	Moto2	Moriwaki	QAT 23	AME 18	SPA 22	FRA 17	ITA 23	CAT 20	NED 25	GER 18	IND 21	CZE 17	GBR 22	RSM	ARA	MAL	AUS	JPN	VAL		NC	0
2014	Moto2	Moriwaki	QAT	AME	ARG	SPA	FRA	ITA	CAT	NED	GER	IND	CZE	GBR	RSM	ARA	JPN 26	AUS	MAL	VAL	NC	0
2015	Moto2	Moriwaki	QAT	AME	ARG	SPA	FRA	ITA	CAT	NED	GER	IND	CZE	GBR	RSM	ARA	JPN 14	AUS	MAL	VAL	27th	2

References

↑ "MotoGP on G+" (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2007-12-14. Retrieved 2008-02-07.
↑ Cashman, Garret (2008-09-28). "Yuki Takahashi runs a determined race at the Grand Prix of Japan". London Bikers (Media Panther Ltd.). Retrieved 2010-04-13.
↑ Birt, Matthew (2008-09-26). "Motegi MotoGP: Yuki Takahashi makes MotoGP switch". Motorcycle News (Bauer Media Group). Retrieved 2010-04-13.
↑ "Insidebikes: Takahashi dropped by Scot Honda". Retrieved 2009-07-01.
↑ "Tech 3 names Moto2 riders, Romagnoli joins". crash.net (Crash Media Group). 2009-11-10. Retrieved 2010-04-13.
↑ O'Leary, Jamie (2010-07-04). "Takahashi takes maiden victory". autosport.com (Haymarket Publications). Retrieved 2010-07-04.

External links

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(English) (Japanese) (Italian) Official website

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