Inside MotoGP

This is the last in a series of three articles looking at the rookies of the 2009 MotoGP season. We already looked at Mika Kallio and Niccolo Canepa. Today we take a look at Yuki Takahashi.

Yuki Takahashi

Nationality: Japanese
Team: Scot Racing
Bike: Honda
Date of Birth: July 12, 1984

Racing Career

2001 – 2004 – Was part of the HRC Racing Scholarship program and competed in several 125cc and 250cc races as a wildcard entry.
2005 – Entered the 250cc world championship full time, finished 11th
2006 – 6th in the 250cc class.
2007 – 11th in 250cc. Missed several races due to an injury.
2008 – 5th in 250cc.

Results in Off Season Testing

Jerez: November 2008
Session 1 – 14th. Session 2 – 14th.
The gap behind the leader for the first session was 4.835 seconds and 3.489 for the second session. A slow start, but at least he improved his times.

Sepang: February 2009
Session 1 – 17th. Session 2 – 16th. Session 3 – 14th
Gap behind leader: 4.835, 2.849, 2.431. He again showed consistent improvement as he got more comfortable with the bike.

Qatar: March 2009
Session 1 – 7th. Session 2 – 13th. Session 3 – 14th
Gap behind leader: 2.504, 2.014, 2.668. The first rain soaked session did not include many of the top riders so the place looks better than it should.

Valencia: March 2009
Session 1 – 15th. Session 2 – 19th. BMW M Award Shootout – 14th
Gap behind leader: 2.495, 2.760, 2.168. In the shootout, Yuki did manage to beat a couple of the more veteran MotoGP riders – De Angelis and Toseland.

Outlook for 2009 MotoGP Season

Yuki did show improvement as he went through the tests. He started out with gaps of over 3 and 4 seconds and managed to reduce it to less than 3 seconds in the final two tests. As he gets more comfortable on the bike he should be able to become more competitive. In my opinion it looks like he was yanked from the 250cc class a little early. He was only 5th overall last year, and the competition in the upper class is going to be much stiffer.

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