Michele Pirro

Pirro 2012

Michele Pirro (born July 5, 1986 in San Giovanni Rotondo ) is an Italian motorcycle racer .

Career

In the 2003 season , Pirro took part for the first time as a wildcard driver in a race in the 125 cm³ class of the motorcycle world championship . At the Italian Grand Prix in Mugello , he finished 29th. In 2004 he made a guest appearance for two more races in the 125 cc class. In Mugello he reached a 19th place; at the Valencia Grand Prix he was ranked 16th in the end. In parallel, Pirro won on Aprilia in this year ahead of Julián Miralles Rodríguez the 125cc European Championship .

In 2005 Pirro competed in the Malaguti factory team in the eight-liter class in his first full world championship. With three World Cup points, he finished the season in 33rd place overall. In 2006 he was unable to get any points on a Honda in twelve starts.

In the 2007 season Michele Pirro started for the Yamaha Team Italia in the FIM Superstock 1000 Cup , where he contested eleven races. There he achieved three pole positions as well as one victory and reached seventh place in the final standings. In the following year he drove on a Yamaha YZF-R1 of the Yamaha Lorenzini by Leoni team in this championship two more podiums and was fifth overall. In addition, Pirro was able to win the title in the Superstock 1000 class of the Italian championship in 2007 and 2008 .

In 2009 Pirro took part in the same team on a Yamaha YZF-R6 in the Supersport World Championship . With consistently constant points, he finished twelfth in the drivers' standings with 70 points. This year he won his third title in the Italian championship, this time in the Supersport class. For the 2010 season, the Italian moved to the successful Dutch team HANNspree Ten Kate Honda , improved to 99 points in this class and finished fifth in the overall standings. In the same year , Pirro took part in the Moto2 class of the motorcycle world championship for the first time at the Aragon Grand Prix and immediately scored points for the Gresini Racing Moto2 team from Fausto Gresini on Moriwaki with his 14th place. This brought him 33rd place in the drivers' championship at the end of the year.

In 2011 , Michele Pirro started his first full season in Moto2. Still starting on a Moriwaki of the Gresini team, he won his first Grand Prix victory at the Valencia Grand Prix at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo and scored consistently throughout the season. In the end he finished ninth in the drivers' championship with 84 points. In 2012 Pirro switched to the MotoGP class. He scored 43 points on a Gresini FTR and was 15th in his debut season. Pirro came third in the newly created Claiming Rule category, behind Aleix Espargaró and Randy De Puniet .

In 2013 Pirro competed in MotoGP with a Ducati as a substitute for injured regular rider Ben Spies . In the end, he entered ten races and scored points in each of them, which was enough for 13th overall.

Since then, he has mostly competed for Ducati as a substitute and wildcard driver several races a year, mostly as the third driver for the Ducati works team, of which he is also a test driver. In 2016, however, he drove three of the first four races in the Ducati customer team OCTO Pramac as a replacement for the injured Danilo Petrucci . In the same year, he replaced the injured regular driver Loris Baz at another customer team, Avintia Racing , at the Grand Prix of Catalonia and the Dutch TT .

His best MotoGP placement to date is fourth place (as a wildcard starter) at the 2018 Valencia Grand Prix .

statistics

title

• 2004 - 125 cc European Champion on Aprilia
• 2007 - Italian Superstock 1000 champion on a Yamaha
• 2008 - Italian Superstock 1000 champion on a Yamaha
• 2009 - Italian Supersport Champion on Yamaha
• 2015 - Italian Superbike champion on Ducati
• 2017 - Italian Superbike Champion on Ducati
• 2018 - Italian Superbike Champion on Ducati
• 2019 - Italian Superbike Champion on Ducati

In the motorcycle world championship

(Status: Austrian Grand Prix 2020)

season	class	team	motorcycle	run	Victories	Podiums	Poles	Points	Result
2003	125 cc	RCGM	Aprilia	1	-	-	-	-	-
2004	125 cc	RCGM	Aprilia	2	-	-	-	-	-
2005	125 cc	Malaguti Reporta Corsa	Malaguti	14th	-	-	-	3	33.
2006	125 cc	WTR Blauer USA	Honda	12	-	-	-	-	-
2010	Moto2	Gresini Racing Moto2	Moriwaki	1	-	-	-	2	36.
2011	Moto2	Gresini Racing Moto2	Moriwaki	17th	1	2	1	84	9.
2012	MotoGP	San Carlo Honda Gresini	FTR	18th	-	-	-	43	15th
2013	MotoGP	Ducati Team / Pramac Racing	Ducati	10	-	-	-	56	13.
2014	MotoGP	Ducati team	Ducati	6th	-	-	-	18th	19th
2015	MotoGP	Ducati team	Ducati	3	-	-	-	12	21st
2016	MotoGP	Pramac Racing / Ducati Team / Avintia Racing	Ducati	9	-	-	-	36	19th
2017	MotoGP	Ducati team	Ducati	3	-	-	-	25th	23.
2018	MotoGP	Ducati team	Ducati	3	-	-	-	14th	22nd
2019	MotoGP	Ducati team	Ducati	3	-	-	-	9	22nd
2020	MotoGP	Pramac Racing	Ducati	1	-	-	-	4th	22nd
total				103	1	2	1	306

References

Web links

Commons : Michele Pirro  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Michele Pirro on the official website of the motorcycle world championship (English).
• Michele Pirro on the official website of the Superbike and Supersport World Championship
• Personal website Michele Pirro (Italian)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Pirro as a replacement for Spies - Biaggi is testing Ducati. motogp.com, June 4, 2013, accessed July 4, 2013 .