Michele Pio Pirro (born 5 July 1986) is a motorcycle road racer from Italy, He was

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

and

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

the ''Italian CIV National Champion in the Superstock class'' and a test rider for

Ducati Ducati Motor Holding S.p.A. () is the motorcycle-manufacturing division of Italian company Ducati, headquartered in Bologna, Italy. The company is directly owned by Italian automotive manufacturer Lamborghini, whose German parent company is Au ...

factory racing in

MotoGP Grand Prix motorcycle racing is the premier class of motorcycle road racing events held on road circuits sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM). Independent motorcycle racing events have been held since the start ...

and rides occasionally as a

wildcard Wild card most commonly refers to: * Wild card (cards), a playing card that substitutes for any other card in card games * Wild card (sports), a tournament or playoff place awarded to an individual or team that has not qualified through normal pla ...

. He has also competed in

Grand Prix motorcycle racing Grand Prix motorcycle racing is the premier class of motorcycle road racing events held on road circuits sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM). Independent motorcycle racing events have been held since the start ...

and the

Supersport World Championship The Supersport World Championship, abbreviated to WorldSSP, is a motorcycle racing competition on hard-surfaced circuits, based on mid-sized sports motorcycles. Competition machines were originally based on production-based motorcycles with 600 ...

Career

125cc World Championship (2003–2006)

He began his Grand Prix career as a wild card in the

2003 Italian Grand Prix The 2003 Italian Grand Prix (formally the Gran Premio Vodafone d'Italia 2003) was a Formula One motor race held on 14 September 2003 at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, Monza, Italy. It was the fourteenth race of the 2003 Formula One season and ...

in the 125cc class, on an

Aprilia Aprilia is an Italian motorcycle manufacturer founded immediately after World War II in Noale, Italy, by Alberto Beggio. The company started as a manufacturer of bicycles and moved on to manufacture scooters and small-capacity motorcycles. ...

motorcycle. After winning the European 125cc Championship in 2004, in

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

he participated as a full-time rider in the same class with

Malaguti Malaguti is an Italian bicycle, scooter and motorcycle company based in San Lazzaro di Savena, founded by Antonino Malaguti in 1930. Producing bicycles until 1958, they then entered the motorcycle market. Noted for their use of small engine ...

, scoring 3 points in the

Chinese Grand Prix The Chinese Grand Prix () is a round of the Formula One World Championship and was contracted to return in 2023 but will now not do so until 2024 at the earliest. It is currently held at the Shanghai International Circuit, Jiading, Shanghai, d ...

and finishing the season in 33rd place. In

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

, he continued to race in the 125 class on an Aprilia – and later a

Honda is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a product ...

– without scoring points.

National racing (2007–2008)

In 2007 and 2008 he won the Italian National Championship (CIV) in the Superstock class on a

Yamaha YZF-R1 The Yamaha YZF-R1, or simply R1, is a -class sports motorcycle made by Yamaha. It was first released in 1998, undergoing significant updates in 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2015, 2018

Supersport World Championship (2009–2010)

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

he participated in the

on a

Yamaha Yamaha may refer to: * Yamaha Corporation, a Japanese company with a wide range of products and services, established in 1887. The company is the largest shareholder of Yamaha Motor Company (below). ** Yamaha Music Foundation, an organization estab ...

, ending in 11th place. In the same year he won the Italian Supersport Championship. The following year he switched to

and finished in 5th place, with a victory in the Italian round at Imola. He also made a one-off appearance in the Moto2 World Championship at the Aragon Grand Prix, finishing 14th.

Moto2 & MotoGP World Championship (2011–2012)

Pirro returned to Grand Prix racing in 2011 in Moto2 with

Team Gresini A team is a group of individuals (human or non-human) working together to achieve their goal. As defined by Professor Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg School of Management, " team is a group of people who are interdependent with respect to info ...

. He obtained a victory, in the season finale at

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...

, just two weeks after Gresini's MotoGP rider

Marco Simoncelli Marco Simoncelli (; 20 January 198723 October 2011), nicknamed Sic (), was an Italian professional motorcycle racer. He competed in the MotoGP World Championship for 10 years from 2002 to 2011. He started in the 125cc class before moving up to ...

was killed in a crash at the

Malaysian Grand Prix The Malaysian Grand Prix (officially the Malaysia Grand Prix from 1963–1965 and 2011–2017 and Malayan Grand Prix in 1962) was an annual auto race held in Malaysia. It was part of the Formula One World Championship from 1999 to 2017 and it ...

. His MotoGP career began in 2012 with Gresini on a FTR motorcycle, with a best placement of fifth at the Valencian Grand Prix, ending the season in 15th place with 43 points.

Ducati Test Rider (2013–present)

Since 2013, Pirro has been the official test rider of team

. He has participated in races every year, either as a wildcard entry or as a substitute for injured riders, obtaining his overall best MotoGP result of 4th at the 2018 Valencian season finale. During the 2013 season he participated in ten total races (3 as a wildcard and 7 as a substitute for the injured

Ben Spies Ben Spies (; born July 11, 1984), is an American former professional motorcycle road racer. He was sometimes nicknamed "Elbows" due to his riding style, in which his elbows protruded outward. Spies won the AMA Superbike Championship for Yoshimur ...

), with a best result of seventh at the

Italian Grand Prix The Italian Grand Prix ( it, Gran Premio d'Italia) is the fifth oldest national Grand Prix motor racing, Grand Prix (after the French Grand Prix, the United States Grand Prix, the Spanish Grand Prix and the Russian Grand Prix), having been he ...

, ending the season in thirteenth place with 56 points. In 2014, Pirro replaced the injured

Cal Crutchlow Cal Crutchlow (born 29 October 1985) is an English professional motorcycle racer who retired from regular competition after the 2020 season. He is contracted as a test rider for Yamaha Motor Racing, which he is expected to continue in 2022 and 2 ...

in the

Argentine Grand Prix The Argentine Grand Prix (Spanish: ''Gran Premio de Argentina'') was a round of the Formula One championship, held intermittently from to , all at the same autodrome in the Argentine national capital of Buenos Aires. Origins and history The Bu ...

and participated as a wild-card in five races. In 2015 and 2016 he continued to be the official

test rider, while also participating in the Italian Superbike Championship (CIV), which he won in 2015. In

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

, he participated as a wild card in the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

and

San Marino San Marino (, ), officially the Republic of San Marino ( it, Repubblica di San Marino; ), also known as the Most Serene Republic of San Marino ( it, Serenissima Repubblica di San Marino, links=no), is the fifth-smallest country in the world an ...

MotoGP rounds. He also raced in the Italian round of the

Superbike World Championship Superbike World Championship (also known as WorldSBK, SBK, World Superbike, WSB, or WSBK) is a silhouette-class road racing series based on heavily modified production motorcycles, also known as superbike racing. The championship was founded i ...

in Misano as a wild card, and in the Spanish GP as a substitute for the injured

Davide Giugliano Davide Giugliano (born 28 October 1989) is a motorcycle racer from Italy, winner of the FIM Superstock 1000 Cup in 2011. Career In 2005 he made his debut in Superstock 600 and in 2007 he moved to Supersport riding a Kawasaki ZX-6R. From 200 ...

. In

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

, he substituted the injured

Danilo Petrucci Danilo Carlo Petrucci (born 24 October 1990) is an Italian Grand Prix motorcycle racer who has competed in the MotoAmerica Superbike Championship with Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati New York. After losing his KTM ride in MotoGP at the end of the ...

for the Pramac Ducati team in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

and

Jerez Jerez de la Frontera (), or simply Jerez (), is a Spanish city and municipality in the province of Cádiz in the autonomous community of Andalusia, in southwestern Spain, located midway between the Atlantic Ocean and the Cádiz Mountains. , the c ...

MotoGP races, he participated as a wild card for the Ducati factory team at the Italian GP at Mugello, he replaced the injured

Loris Baz Loris Baz (born 1 February 1993) is a French motorcycle racer. He is competing for satellite BMW team Bonovo in the 2022 Superbike World Championship, together with Eugene Laverty. Baz has previously competed in World Superbikes for Ten Kate Rac ...

at the Catalan GP and the

Dutch TT The Dutch Tourist Trophy, also known as the ''TT Assen'', is an annual Dutch motorsport event established in 1925 for road racing motorcycles held on the TT Circuit Assen, also known as the ‘Cathedral of Speed'. The event attained world champ ...

on an Avintia Ducati and he appeared again with the factory team at the Austrian GP as a wild-card entry and at

and

Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and an, Aragón ; ca, Aragó ) is an autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces (from north to sou ...

as replacement for the injured

Andrea Iannone Andrea Iannone (born 9 August 1989) is an Italian professional motorcycle racer who competed in the MotoGP World Championship from 2013 to 2019. Iannone is a race winner in MotoGP, Moto2 and 125 cc World Championships. After winning 4 races ...

. He continued to participate in MotoGP as Ducati's wild card rider in

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

and

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

. During a practice session for the 2018 Italian Grand Prix he suffered a severe crash at the end of the start/finish straight and was hospitalised with a concussion. He made a further three wildcard entries in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, and

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

. In 2017, 2018 and 2019 he won again the CIV Superbike Championship. In

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

, Pirro substituted the recovering

Francesco Bagnaia Francesco "Pecco" Bagnaia (born 14 January 1997) is an Italian Grand Prix motorcycle racer competing in MotoGP World Championship, MotoGP for the Ducati Corse, Ducati Lenovo Team. He is the current 2022 MotoGP season, MotoGP World Champion and ...

at Pramac for the Austrian round.

Career statistics

Grand Prix motorcycle racing

By season

By class

Races by year

(

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Supersport World Championship

Races by year

(

) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Superbike World Championship

Races by year

(

) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pirro, Michele 1986 births Living people People from San Giovanni Rotondo 125cc World Championship riders Moto2 World Championship riders Italian motorcycle racers Supersport World Championship riders Ducati Corse MotoGP riders FIM Superstock 1000 Cup riders Superbike World Championship riders Avintia Racing MotoGP riders Pramac Racing MotoGP riders Gresini Racing MotoGP riders MotoGP World Championship riders Motorcycle racers of Fiamme Oro Sportspeople from the Province of Foggia