MotoGP: Takaaki Nakagami – Consistency is key

Takaaki Nakagami currently sits in 7th overall in the standings, despite not scoring a podium finish.

Takaaki Nakagami, what a rider, probably the only man this season who is going to score at least a podium on the Honda (which we typed nasty words about then deleted) this season, Nakagami has had some stand out performances including running in a healthy third place in the Styrian GP before it was stopped due to Vinales’ 140mph crash.

The Japanese rider has been using data from Marc Marquez as well as some of his technicians, this has set off a chain reaction and caused him to go very fast, impressing many. At Catalunya, Nakagami even said he had the pace to win the race but the Pramac Ducati’s were in his way and he could not get past them as their strengths matched his weaknesses.

He currently sits in seventh place overall in the standings, despite not scoring a podium, scoring a top 10 finish in every race this season with 0 x DNF’s, proving to be incredibly consistent, scoring his best finish of P4 at Andalucia. In 2020, Nakagami scored 74 points in the 16 races he entered, in 2020 after 8 races, he has scored 72, scoring nearly the same amount of points in half the races, coming on leaps and bounds.

Before the season started, a lot of people were negative towards him, saying he doesn’t deserve his ride, those people have now retracted behind their rocks given his performances this season.

His debut podium is not far away, but he is proving why it pays to be consistent.

Featured image – www.motogp.com