Takaaki Nakagami · Biography

Takaaki Nakagami was born on 9 February 1992 in Chiba, Japan, and learned his trade in his country’s national road racing series before moving to Europe as a teenager. He raced in the 125cc and Moto2 world championships, winning two grands prix in Moto2, and spent seven full MotoGP seasons with LCR Honda between 2018 and 2024. In 2025 he became a development rider for Honda HRC.

Early years in Japan

He made his debut in 2005 in the GP125 class of the All Japan Road Race Championship with Harc-Pro Honda, finishing 13th as a rookie. A year later he won every race of the series to take the 2006 Japanese 125cc title, becoming the youngest champion in the class in Japan. That same season he travelled to Spain with the MotoGP Academy to contest the Spanish 125cc championship, where he finished 12th. In 2007 he was sixth in that series and made his world championship debut as a wildcard at the Valencia Grand Prix, qualifying 20th and failing to finish.

The 125cc World Championship

In 2008 he contested his first full 125cc world championship season with the I.C. Team on an Aprilia. He finished 24th overall, with eighth place at Donington Park as his best result. In 2009 he joined Ongetta I.S.P.A. and climbed to 16th, scoring 43 points with two fifth places, at a wet Le Mans and again at Donington Park. At the end of that season he returned to Japan. In 2010 he won the Suzuka 8 Hours alongside Ryuichi Kiyonari and Takumi Takahashi, and finished eighth in the Japanese ST600 championship.

Seven years in Moto2

After a handful of races on a Suter in 2011, he returned to the world championship full-time in 2012 with Italtrans Racing Team on a Kalex. He finished 15th, with fifth place at Jerez. In 2013 he took a clear step forward: he stood on the podium for the first time with third place at Losail, claimed three pole positions at Le Mans, Brno and Silverstone, collected several second places and ended the year eighth with 149 points. In 2014 he joined Idemitsu Honda Team Asia, the outfit he would stay with for the rest of his Moto2 career. That season opened with a disqualification in Qatar after he had crossed the line second, and he ended it 22nd. In 2015 he was back in eighth, with 100 points and a podium at Misano.

His first win came at the 2016 Dutch TT at Assen. He finished that year sixth with 169 points, his best Moto2 standing. In 2017 he took his second Moto2 victory, at Silverstone, and ended the championship seventh with 137 points.

MotoGP with LCR Honda

He stepped up to MotoGP with LCR Honda in 2018 and finished 20th in his rookie year with 33 points. In 2019 he improved to 13th with 74 points, although a crash at Assen left him with a shoulder injury that forced him to end his season after the Japanese Grand Prix; Johann Zarco took over his bike for the final three rounds.

His best year was 2020. At the Teruel Grand Prix at MotorLand Aragón he took his first MotoGP pole position, the first for a Japanese rider in the premier class in almost 16 years, and he finished the championship tenth with 116 points. In 2021 he was 15th with 76 points, with fourth place at Jerez as his best result. The next three seasons were harder: 18th in 2022 with 48 points, 18th in 2023 with 56 and 19th in 2024 with 31. At the end of 2024 he stepped back from full-time racing. His MotoGP record reads 127 starts, one pole position and 447 points, without a win or a podium.

Development rider for Honda HRC

From 2025 he has worked on the development of Honda HRC’s bike. That year he raced as a wildcard at the French Grand Prix and, in a rain-hit race at Le Mans, started from the back of the grid and finished sixth, his best grand prix result since 2021. In June 2025 he stood in for the injured Luca Marini in the factory Honda team at Mugello. In September 2026 he took Joan Mir’s bike in Austria after Mir was withdrawn on medical grounds. In October 2026 he returned as a wildcard at Motegi, but a crash in the opening minutes of first practice broke his collarbone and ruled him out of the rest of the Japanese Grand Prix.