The 2006 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season was the 58th F.I.M. Road racing World Championship season.

Season summary

The 2006 MotoGP season was one of the closest battles and most thrilling in recent memory in which Honda's Nicky Hayden didn't claim the championship from Valentino Rossi until the final race of the year. The victory was Hayden's first World Championship. Seven different riders claimed Grand Prix victories including first time winners Daniel Pedrosa, Toni Elías and Troy Bayliss. Yamaha's Valentino Rossi fought back from a 51 point deficit to lead the championship going into the final rounds. Hayden's fortunes took a dip when he was taken out by his team-mate Pedrosa at the penultimate round in Portugal, but he bounced back to win the crown when Rossi crashed at the final round at Valencia.

In the 250 class, Aprilia's Jorge Lorenzo won his first championship taking 8 victories. Another Aprilia rider took the 125 crown with Álvaro Bautista also taking 8 wins.

Grands Prix

Date	Grand Prix	Circuit	125 winner	250 winner	MotoGP winner	Report
March 26	Spanish Grand Prix	Jerez	Álvaro Bautista	Jorge Lorenzo	Loris Capirossi	Report
April 8	Qatar Grand Prix	Losail	Álvaro Bautista	Jorge Lorenzo	Valentino Rossi	Report
April 30	Turkish Grand Prix	Istanbul	Héctor Faubel	Hiroshi Aoyama	Marco Melandri	Report
May 14	Chinese Grand Prix	Shanghai	Mika Kallio	Hector Barbera	Daniel Pedrosa	Report
May 21	French Grand Prix	Le Mans	Thomas Lüthi	Yuki Takahashi	Marco Melandri	Report
June 4	Italian Grand Prix	Mugello	Mattia Pasini	Jorge Lorenzo	Valentino Rossi	Report
June 18	Catalan Grand Prix	Catalunya	Álvaro Bautista	Andrea Dovizioso	Valentino Rossi	Report
June 24	Dutch TT	Assen	Mika Kallio	Jorge Lorenzo	Nicky Hayden	Report
July 2	British Grand Prix	Donington Park	Álvaro Bautista	Jorge Lorenzo	Daniel Pedrosa	Report
July 16	German Grand Prix	Sachsenring	Mattia Pasini	Yuki Takahashi	Valentino Rossi	Report
July 23	United States Grand Prix	Laguna Seca	No 125cc and 250cc race		Nicky Hayden	Report
August 20	Czech Republic Grand Prix	Brno	Álvaro Bautista	Jorge Lorenzo	Loris Capirossi	Report
September 10	Malaysian Grand Prix	Sepang	Álvaro Bautista	Jorge Lorenzo	Valentino Rossi	Report
September 17	Australian Grand Prix	Phillip Island	Álvaro Bautista	Jorge Lorenzo	Marco Melandri	Report
September 24	Japanese Grand Prix	Motegi	Mika Kallio	Hiroshi Aoyama	Loris Capirossi	Report
October 15	Portuguese Grand Prix	Estoril	Álvaro Bautista	Andrea Dovizioso	Toni Elías	Report
October 29	Valencia Grand Prix	Valencia	Héctor Faubel	Alex de Angelis	Troy Bayliss	Report

2006 MotoGP World Championship final standings

• Rounds marked with a light blue background were under wet race conditions.

Pos Rider Team ESP QAT TUR CHN FRA ITA CAT NED GBR GER USA CZE MAL AUS JPN POR VAL Pts 1 Hayden Honda 3 2 3 2 5 3 2 1 7 3 1 9 4 5 5 Ret 3 252 2 Rossi Yamaha 14 1 4 Ret Ret 1 1 8 2 1 Ret 2 1 3 2 2 13 247 3 Capirossi Ducati 1 3 6 8 2 2 Ret 15 9 5 8 1 2 7 1 12 2 229 4 Melandri Honda 5 7 1 7 1 6 Ret 7 3 2 3 5 9 1 3 8 5 228 5 Pedrosa Honda 2 6 14 1 3 4 Ret 3 1 4 2 3 3 15 7 Ret 4 215 6 Roberts Roberts 8 10 13 13 Ret 8 3 5 5 Ret 4 4 7 14 9 3 8 134 7 Edwards Yamaha 11 9 9 3 6 12 5 13 6 12 9 10 10 Ret 8 4 9 124 8 Stoner Honda 6 5 2 5 4 Ret Ret 4 4 DNS Ret 6 8 6 Ret Ret Ret 119 9 Elías Honda 4 8 5 11 9 7 Ret DNS INJ 11 15 11 Ret 9 6 1 6 116 10 Hopkins Suzuki 9 Ret 17 4 15 10 4 6 8 10 6 7 6 12 12 6 11 116 11 Vermeulen Suzuki 12 Ret 7 Ret 10 14 6 10 16 7 5 12 11 2 11 9 Ret 98 12 Tamada Honda 10 14 10 6 7 9 7 11 11 Ret 11 13 14 10 10 5 12 96 13 Gibernau Ducati Ret 4 11 9 8 5 Ret INJ INJ 8 10 INJ 5 4 4 Ret INJ 95 14 Nakano Kawasaki 7 11 8 10 12 11 DSQ 2 Ret 6 Ret 8 Ret 8 Ret Ret 7 92 15 Checa Yamaha 13 12 15 14 11 15 8 9 10 9 7 15 12 Ret 14 7 10 75 16 de Puniet Kawasaki Ret Ret 12 12 Ret 13 Ret 14 12 Ret 12 14 13 11 Ret 10 Ret 37 17 Hofmann Ducati 15 15 16 15 13 Ret 10 12 13 Ret 14 16 15 13 16 11 Ret 30 18 Ellison Yamaha 16 13 18 16 14 16 9 Ret 14 13 13 17 16 16 15 13 14 26 19 Bayliss Ducati 1 25 20 Cardoso Ducati Ret 16 Ret 17 Ret 17 11 17 15 14 16 Ret 17 17 Ret 14 Ret 10 21 Akiyoshi Suzuki 13 3 22 McCoy Ilmor 15 15 2 - Fabrizio Honda DNS 0 Pos Rider Team ESP QAT TUR CHN FRA ITA CAT NED GBR GER USA CZE MAL AUS JPN POR VAL Pts

Position	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
Points	25	20	16	13	11	10	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2	1

2006 250cc World Championship final standings

Place	Rider	# Bike	Country	Team	Points	Wins
1	Jorge Lorenzo	48	Spain	Fortuna Aprilia-Aprilia	289	8
2	Andrea Dovizioso	34	Italy	Humangest Racing Team-Honda	272	2
3	Alex De Angelis	7	San Marino	Master - MVA-Aprilia	228	1
4	Hiroshi Aoyama	4	Japan	Red Bull-KTM	193	2
5	Roberto Locatelli	15	Italy	Team Toth-Aprilia	191	0
6	Yuki Takahashi	55	Japan	Humangest Racing Team-Honda	156	2
7	Héctor Barberá	80	Spain	Fortuna Aprilia-Aprilia	152	1
8	Shuhei Aoyama	73	Japan	Repsol Honda-Honda	99	0
9	Sylvain Guintoli	50	France	Equipe GP de France - Scrab-Aprilia	96	0
10	Marco Simoncelli	58	Italy	Squadra Corse Metis Gilera-Gilera	92	0
11	Anthony West	14	Australia	Kiefer - Bos - Racing-Aprilia	78	0
12	Jakub Smrž	96	Czech Republic	Cardion AB Motoracing-Aprilia	58	0
13	Alex Debón	6	Spain	Fortuna Aprilia-Aprilia	50	0
14	Manuel Poggiali	54	San Marino	Red Bull-KTM	50	0
15	Martín Cárdenas	36	Colombia	Würth Honda BQR-Honda Repsol Honda-Honda	37	0
16	Alex Baldolini	25	Italy	Matteoni Racing-Aprilia	26	0
17	Andrea Ballerini	8	Italy	Campetella Racing-Aprilia	24	0
18	Sebastian Porto	19	Argentina	Repsol Honda-Honda	20	0
19	Aleix Espargaró	42	Spain	Wurth Honda BQR-Honda	20	0
20	Jules Cluzel	16	France	Equipe GP de France-Aprilia	15	0
21	Dirk Heidolf	28	Germany	Kiefer - Bos - Racing-Aprilia	15	0
22	Arnaud Vincent	21	France	Arie Molenaar Racing-Honda	14	0
23	Arturo Tizón	23	Spain	Wurth Honda BQR-Honda	11	0
24	David De Gea	41	Spain	Repsol Honda-Honda	9	0
25	Ryuji Yokoe	86	Japan	RT Morinokumasan Sendai-Yamaha	8	0
26	Franco Battaini	9	Italy	Campetella Racing-Aprilia	7	0
27	Fabricio Perren	37	Argentina	Stop And Go Racing Team-Honda	5	0
28	Ratthapark Wilairot	87	Thailand	Thai Honda Castrol Endurance-Honda	6	0
29	Jordi Carchano	24	Spain	Stop And Go Racing Team-Aprilia WTR Blauer USA-Aprilia	4	0
30	Seijin Oikawa	89	Japan	Will Access With Plus Myu-Yamaha	3	0
31	Taro Sekiguchi	44	Japan	Campetella Racing-Aprilia	3	0
32	Chaz Davies	57	United Kingdom	Campetella Racing-Aprilia Arie Molenaar Racing-Honda Grillini Racing-Honda	3	0
33	Luca Morelli	22	Italy	Nocable Angaia Racing-Aprilia	2	0
34	Álvaro Molina	41	Spain	Andalucia Team Mas-Aprilia	2	0

2006 125cc World Championship final standings

Place	Rider	# Bike	Country	Team	Points	Wins
1	Álvaro Bautista	19	Spain	Master - MVA-Aprilia	338	8
2	Mika Kallio	36	Finland	Red Bull KTM-KTM	262	3
3	Héctor Faubel	55	Spain	Master - MVA-Aprilia	197	2
4	Mattia Pasini	75	Italy	Master - MVA-Aprilia	192	2
5	Sergio Gadea	33	Spain	Master - MVA-Aprilia	160	0
6	Lukáš Pešek	52	Czech Republic	Derbi Racing-Derbi	154	0
7	Gábor Talmácsi	14	Hungary	Humangest Racing Team-Honda	119	0
8	Thomas Lüthi	1	Switzerland	Elit - Caffe Latte-Honda	113	1
9	Julián Simón	60	Spain	Red Bull KTM-KTM	97	0
10	Joan Olivé	6	Spain	SSM Racing-Aprilia	85	0
11	Fabrizio Lai	32	Italy	Valsir Seedor Racing-Honda	83	0
12	Simone Corsi	24	Italy	Squadra Corse Metis Gilera-Gilera	79	0
13	Pablo Nieto	22	Spain	Multimedia Racing-Aprilia	66	0
14	Nicolás Terol	18	Spain	Derbi Racing-Derbi	53	0
15	Tomoyoshi Koyama	71	Japan	Malaguti Ajo Corse-Malaguti	49	0
16	Raffaele De Rosa	35	Italy	Multimedia Racing-Aprilia	37	0
17	Sandro Cortese	11	Germany	Elit - Caffe Latte-Honda	23	0
18	Angel Rodríguez	10	Spain	3C Racing-Aprilia	20	0
19	Bradley Smith	38	United Kingdom	Repsol Honda-Honda	20	0
20	Pol Espargaró	92/42	Spain	Team RACC Derbi-Derbi Campetella Racing Junior-Derbi	19	0
21	Lorenzo Zanetti	8	Italy	Skilled I.S.P.A. Racing Team-Aprilia	18	0
22	Andrea Iannone	29	Italy	Campetella Racing Junior-Aprilia WTR Blauer USA-Aprilia	15	0
23	Esteve Rabat	80/34	Spain	Wurth Honda-Honda	11	0
24	Karel Abraham	44	Czech Republic	Cardion AB Motoracing-Aprilia	8	0
25	Mike Di Meglio	63	France	FFM Honda Grand Prix 125-Honda	8	0
26	Stefan Bradl	17	Germany	Red Bull KTM Junior Team-KTM	4	0
27	Federico Sandi	12	Italy	SSM Racing-Aprilia	4	0
28	Manuel Hernández	43	Spain	Nocable Angaia Racing-Honda	4	0
29	Hiroaki Kuzuhara	90	Japan	WTR Blauer USA-Aprilia	1	0

• Rabat and Espargaró rode race with wildcard and got permanent ride later. They used two different numbers during the season.

MotoGP constructors final standings

Place	Constructor	Points	Wins
1	Honda	360	8
2	Yamaha	289	5
3	Ducati	248	4
4	Suzuki	151	0
5	KR211V	134	0
6	Kawasaki	109	0
7	Ilmor	2	0

250cc constructors final standings

Place	Constructor	Points	Wins
1	Aprilia	357	10
2	Honda	290	4
3	KTM	205	2
4	Gilera	92	0
5	Yamaha	8	0

125cc constructors final standings

Place	Constructor	Points	Wins
1	Aprilia	373	12
2	KTM	267	3
3	Honda	170	1
4	Derbi	163	0
5	Gilera	79	0
6	Malaguti	49	0

Participants

MotoGP participants

Team Constructor Motorcycle Tyres No Rider Camel Yamaha Yamaha Yamaha YZR-M1 5 Colin Edwards 46 Valentino Rossi Konica Minolta Honda Honda Honda RC211V 6 Makoto Tamada Tech 3 Yamaha Yamaha Yamaha YZR-M1 7 Carlos Checa 77 James Ellison Team Roberts Team Roberts KR211V 10 Kenny Roberts, Jr. Ducati Marlboro Team Ducati Ducati Desmosedici GP6 15 Sete Gibernau 65 Loris Capirossi 66 Alex Hofmann 12 Troy Bayliss Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki Kawasaki Ninja ZX-RR 17 Randy de Puniet 56 Shinya Nakano 8 Naoki Matsudo Rizla Suzuki MotoGP Suzuki Suzuki GSV-R 21 John Hopkins 71 Chris Vermeulen 64 Kousuke Akiyoshi Repsol Honda Team Honda Honda RC211V 26 Dani Pedrosa 69 Nicky Hayden Honda LCR Honda Honda RC211V 27 Casey Stoner Pramac d'Antin MotoGP Ducati Ducati Desmosedici GP5 30 Jose Luis Cardoso 66 Alex Hofmann 22 Ivan Silva Fortuna Honda Gresini Honda Honda RC211V 24 Toni Elías 33 Marco Melandri 84 Michel Fabrizio Ilmor SRT Ilmor Ilmor X3 8 Garry McCoy

Key Regular Rider Wildcard Rider Replacement Rider

250cc participants

According to the official website: www.motogp.com

Team Constructor Motorcycle No Rider Red Bull KTM GP 250 KTM KTM FRR 250 4 Hiroshi Aoyama 54 Manuel Poggiali Master - MVA Aspar Team Aprilia Aprilia RSA 250 7 Alex de Angelis Kiefer-Bos-Racing Aprilia Aprilia RSW 250 LE 14 Anthony West 28 Dirk Heidolf Team Toth Aprilia Aprilia RSW 250 LE 15 Roberto Loctelli Equipe GP De France-Scrab Aprilia Aprilia RSW 250 LE 16 Jules Cluzel 50 Sylvain Guintoli Repsol Honda Honda Honda RS250RW 19 Sebastian Porto 73 Shuhei Aoyama Arie Molenaar Racing Honda Honda RS250RW 21 Arnaud Vincent Nocable Angaia Racing Aprilia Aprilia RSW 250 LE 22 Luca Morelli Wurth Honda BQR Honda Honda RS250RW 23 Arturo Tizón 36 Martín Cárdenas 40 Sinan Sofuoğlu Stop And Go Racing Team Honda Honda RS250RW 24 Jordi Carchano Matteoni Racing Aprilia Aprilia RSW 250 LE 25 Alex Baldolini 85 Alessio Palumbo Humangest Racing Team Honda Honda RS250RW 34 Andrea Dovizioso 55 Yuki Takahashi WTR Blauer USA Aprilia Aprilia RSW 250 LE 41 Michele Danese 24 Jordi Carchano TicinoHosting Campetella Racing Aprilia Aprilia RSW 250 LE 44 Taro Sekiguchi 57 Chaz Davies 8 Andrea Ballerini Fortuna Aprilia Aprilia Aprilia RSA 250 48 Jorge Lorenzo 80 Héctor Barberá Squadra Corse Metis Gilera Gilera Gilera RSW 250 LE 58 Marco Simoncelli Cardion AB Motoracing Aprilia Aprilia RSW 250 LE 96 Jakub Smrž Aprilia Racing Aprilia Aprilia RSW 250 LE 6 Alex Debon Andalucia Team Mas Aprilia Aprilia RSW 250 LE 31 Alvaro Molina Jaap Kingma Racing Aprilia Aprilia RSW 250 LE 66 Hans Smees China Zongshen Team Aprilia Aprilia RSW 250 LE 59 Ho Ching Feng Benelli QJ Team of China Benelli Benelli RSW 250 LE 60 Wang Zhu 61 Li Zheng Peng Yamaha Tianjian Racing Team Yamaha Yamaha TZM250 62 Huang Shi Zhao 63 Xiao Jin

Key Regular Rider Wildcard Rider Replacement Rider

125cc participants

According to the official website: www.motogp.com

Number	Rider	Country	Team
1	Thomas Lüthi		Elit - Caffe Latte-Honda
6	Joan Olivé		SSM Racing-Aprilia
7	Alexis Masbou		Malaguti Ajo Corse-Malaguti
8	Lorenzo Zanetti		Skilled I.S.P.A. Racing Team-Aprilia
9	Michael Ransender		Red Bull Junior-KTM
10	Angel Rodríguez		3C Racing-Aprilia
11	Sandro Cortese		Elit - Caffe Latte-Honda
12	Federico Sandi		SSM Racing-Aprilia
13	Dino Lombardi		3C Racing-Aprilia
14	Gábor Talmácsi		Humangest Racing Team-Honda
15	Michele Pirro		WTR Blauer USA-Aprilia
16	Michele Conti		Valsir Seedorf Racing-Honda
17	Stefan Bradl		Red Bull Junior-KTM
18	Nicolás Terol		Derbi Racing-Derbi
19	Álvaro Bautista		Master - MVA-Aprilia
20	Roberto Tamburini		Matteoni Racing-Aprilia
21	Mateo Túnez		Master - MVA-Aprilia
22	Pablo Nieto		Multimedia Racing-Aprilia
23	Lorenzo Baroni		Humangest Racing Team-Honda
24	Simone Corsi		Squadra Corse Metis Gilera-Gilera
26	Vincent Braillard		Multimedia Racing-Aprilia
29	Andrea Iannone		Campetella Racing Junior-Aprilia
32	Fabrizio Lai		Valsir Seedor Racing-Honda
33	Sergio Gadea		Master - MVA-Aprilia
34	Esteve Rabat		Wurth Honda BQR-Honda
35	Raffaele De Rosa		Multimedia Racing-Aprilia
36	Mika Kallio		Red Bull KTM-KTM
37	Joey Litjens		Arie Molenaar Racing-Honda
38	Bradley Smith		Repsol Honda-Honda
43	Manuel Hernández		Nocable Angaia Racing-Honda
44	Karal Abrahám		Cardion AB Motoracing-Aprilia
45	Imre Toth		Team Toth-Aprilia
52	Lukáš Pešek		Derbi Racing-Derbi
53	Simone Grotzkyj		Campetella Racing Junior-Aprilia
55	Héctor Faubel		Master - MVA-Aprilia
60	Julián Simón		Red Bull KTM-KTM
63	Mike Di Meglio		FFM Honda Grand Prix 125-Honda
71	Tomoyoshi Koyama		Malaguti Ajo Corse-Malaguti
75	Mattia Pasini		Master - MVA-Aprilia
90	Hiroaki Kuzuhara		Malaguti Ajo Corse-Malaguti