Fonsi Nieto

Alfonso González Nieto (born 2 December 1978 in Madrid, Spain) is a Grand Prix motorcycle road racer. As the nephew of successful Grand Prix motorcycle road racer Ángel Nieto, it was no surprise when he started competing in the sport himself. After success in the 250cc class he moved to World Superbikes, while he also has made one MotoGP start. For 2010 he returned to the Grand Prix scene in the newly formed Moto2 category.

Early years

He won the Spanish 125cc championship in 1998, and the Spanish 250cc champion in 1999 and 2000, also winning the less prestigious European 125cc title in 1997. In 1999 and 2000 he raced in the 250cc World Championship alongside his domestic commitments, finishing 14th overall on a Yamaha TZ250 with a best result of 6th at Estoril in 2000.

250cc World Championship

He was 4th in the world championship in 2001, with 4 successive 5th places early in the season and a pair of late-season podium finishes.^[1] He won 4 races in 2002, finishing 2nd to Marco Melandri. He was then 5th in 2003 with a win at Donington Park, and 7th in 2004.

Superbike World Championship

Nieto at the Assen round of the 2007 season.

In 2005 he entered the Superbike World Championship with the Caracchi Ducati team, finishing 17th overall in the championship. A fourth in Round 4 of the season was the highlight; he only reached the top 10 once more. For 2006 and 2007 he rode for PSG-Kawasaki. His first podium finish came in Race 2 at Assen in 2006, following team-mate Chris Walker's victory in the first race. He was also third at Magny-Cours in 2007.^[2] He took pole position at Lausitzring in 2007 after finding a dry spell in a wet qualifying session.^[3]

In 2007 he also replaced the injured Olivier Jacque in the French Grand Prix making his debut in the MotoGP class.

For 2008 he joined Alstare Suzuki, making an immediate impact by winning his first world superbike race in the second race of the opening round in Qatar.^[4] He finished the season 6th overall, but lost his 2009 ride as the team scaled back to two riders and retained the less successful Japanese Yukio Kagayama. However, Nieto returned to the team mid-season after Max Neukirchner was injured.

Career statistics

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
1997	125cc	Aprilia	MAL	JPN	SPA 16	ITA	AUT	FRA	NED	IMO	GER	BRA	GBR	CZE	CAT	INA	AUS				NC	0
1998	125cc	Aprilia	JPN	MAL	SPA 15	ITA	FRA	MAD 14	NED	GBR	GER	CZE	IMO	CAT 17	AUS	ARG					29th	3
1999	250cc	Yamaha	MAL 22	JPN 14	SPA 18	FRA 12	ITA 17	CAT Ret	NED 19	GBR 17	GER 18	CZE 17	IMO 18	VAL 15	AUS 16	RSA 15	BRA 17	ARG 14			23rd	10
2000	250cc	Yamaha	RSA Ret	MAL Ret	JPN 22	SPA 16	FRA 16	ITA 9	CAT 18	NED 16	GBR 18	GER 12	CZE Ret	POR 6	VAL 17	BRA 11	PAC 14	AUS 9			14th	35
2001	250cc	Aprilia	JPN 11	RSA 5	SPA 5	FRA 5	ITA 5	CAT 5	NED DNS	GBR 6	GER 10	CZE 7	POR 4	VAL 3	PAC 4	AUS 5	MAL 3	BRA 4			5th	167
2002	250cc	Aprilia	JPN 13	RSA 3	SPA 1	FRA 1	ITA 3	CAT 3	NED 5	GBR 2	GER 4	CZE 4	POR 1	BRA Ret	PAC 4	MAL 1	AUS 2	VAL Ret			2nd	241
2003	250cc	Aprilia	JPN 6	RSA 7	SPA 7	FRA 4	ITA 2	CAT 2	NED Ret	GBR 1	GER 2	CZE 6	POR 9	BRA Ret	PAC 8	MAL 3	AUS 3	VAL 5			5th	194
2004	250cc	Aprilia	RSA 7	SPA 3	FRA 7	ITA 5	CAT 5	NED 8	BRA 5	GER 8	GBR 5	CZE Ret	POR Ret	JPN Ret	QAT 5	MAL 7	AUS Ret	VAL 6			7th	124
2007	MotoGP	Kawasaki	QAT	SPA	TUR	CHN	FRA 11	ITA	CAT	GBR	NED	GER	USA	CZE	RSM	POR	JPN	AUS	MAL	VAL	22nd	5
2010	Moto2	Moriwaki	QAT 13	SPA 21	FRA 8	ITA 15	GBR 11	NED Ret	CAT 8	GER 4	CZE 13	IND DNS	SMR	ARA Ret	JPN Ret	MAL 19	AUS 12	POR 24	VAL Ret		18th	45

References

External links

fonsinieto.com Official website

Sporting positions
Preceded by Alvaro Molina	Spanish 125cc Champion 1998	Succeeded by Jerónimo Vidal
Preceded by José Luis Cardoso	Spanish 250cc Champion 1999-2000	Succeeded by Alex Debón
Preceded by Colin Edwards Jeff Gordon Jimmie Johnson	Race of Champions Nations' Cup 2003 with: Cristiano da Matta Gilles Panizzi	Succeeded by Jean Alesi Sébastien Loeb

Persondata
Name	Nieto, Fonsi
Alternative names
Short description	Spanish motorcycle racer
Date of birth	2 December 1978
Place of birth	Madrid (Spain)
Date of death
Place of death

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