Michele Pirro | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Pirro at the 2012 Australian Grand Prix
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Nationality | Italian | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born |
San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy |
5 July 1986 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Current team | Barni Racing Team | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bike number | 51 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Michele Pio Pirro (born 5 July 1986) is a motorcycle racer from Italy, who currently races in the CIV Superbike Championship aboard a Ducati Panigale. He has also competed in Grand Prix motorcycle racing and the Supersport World Championship.
He began his Grand Prix career as a wild card in the 2003 Italian Grand Prix in the 125cc class, on an Aprilia motorcycle. In 2005, he participated in the same class with Malaguti, scoring 3 points in the Chinese Grand Prix and finishing the season in 33rd place. In 2006, he continued to race in the 125 class on an Aprilia – and later a Honda – without scoring points.
In 2007 and 2008 he won the Italian national championship (CIV) in the Superstock class on a Yamaha YZF-R1.
In 2009 he participated in the Supersport World Championship on a Yamaha, ending in 11th place. The following year he switched to Honda 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.
Pirro returned to Grand Prix racing in 2011 in Moto2 with Team Gresini. He obtained a victory, in the season finale at Valencia, just two weeks after Gresini's MotoGP rider Marco Simoncelli was killed in a crash at the Malaysian Grand Prix.