# Yuki Takahashi

Yuki Takahashi (高橋 裕紀, Takahashi Yūki, born July 12, 1984) is a Japanese Grand Prix motorcycle road racer. He currently races in the All Japan Road Race JSB1000 Championship aboard a Honda CBR1000RR. 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 career

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

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.

### MotoGP World Championship

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. 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. 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 World Championship

Takahashi has dropped down into the new Moto2 class for 2010, partnering Raffaele de Rosa at Tech 3. He took his first victory in the class at Barcelona, after a ride-through penalty for Andrea Iannone. 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
### Grand Prix motorcycle racing
#### By season

| Season | Class | Motorcycle | Team | Race | Win | Podium | Pole | FLap | Pts | Plcd |
| 2001 | 125cc | Honda | OSL SC & Okegawa School | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | NC |
| 2002 | 250cc | Honda | Team HRC | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 16 | 21st |
| 2003 | 250cc | Honda | Dy Do Miu Racing Team | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 29 | 18th |
| 2004 | 250cc | Honda | Dydo Miu Racing | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 25th |
| 2005 | 250cc | Honda | Team Scot | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 77 | 11th |
| 2006 | 250cc | Honda | Humangest Racing Team | 14 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 156 | 6th |
| 2007 | 250cc | Honda | Kopron Team Scot | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 90 | 11th |
| 2008 | 250cc | Honda | JiR Team Scot 250 | 16 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 167 | 5th |
| 2009 | MotoGP | Honda | Scot Racing Team MotoGP | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 21st |
| 2010 | Moto2 | Tech 3 | Tech 3 Racing | 17 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 86 | 12th |
| 2011 | Moto2 | Moriwaki | Gresini Racing | 17 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 77 | 11th |
| 2012 | Moto2 | Suter | Forward Racing | 17 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 28th |
| 2012 | Moto2 | FTR | Forward Racing | 17 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 28th |
| 2013 | Moto2 | Moriwaki | IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | NC |
| 2014 | Moto2 | Moriwaki | Moriwaki Racing | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | NC |
| 2015 | Moto2 | Moriwaki | Moriwaki Racing | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 27th |
| Total | | | | 137 | 3 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 725 | |

#### By class

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

#### 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 |
| 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 | INP 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 | INP | 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 | INP 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 | INP 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 | INP 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 | INP 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 | INP | CZE | GBR | RSM | ARA | JPN 26 | AUS | MAL | VAL | NC | 0 |
| 2015 | Moto2 | Moriwaki | QAT | AME | ARG | SPA | FRA | ITA | CAT | NED | GER | INP | CZE | GBR | RSM | ARA | JPN 14 | AUS | MAL | VAL | 27th | 2 |