Fonsi Nieto
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Date of birth: December 2nd, 1978 |
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Honours
First podium finish: GP of the Comunitat Valenciana 2001
First Grand Prix: Spanish GP 1997
Sporting career
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Biography
With such a famous name in the world of motorcycling both in Spain and overseas, Alfonso González Nieto, “Fonsi”, has experienced the races very closely since he was a little boy. Nephew of the 12+1 times World Champion Angel Nieto, Fonsi has, in his own right, earned the right to be called a young promise of Spanish motorcycling.
After his first steps in the world of competition with pocket bikes, where he already proved to have inherited his uncle’s inborn talent, Fonsi soon jumped over to the “real” bikes. In 1995 and after reaping his first victories on the pocket bikes the year before, Fonsi took the Spanish 125 Junior Criterium Championship, the same title that Sete Gibernau had already taken and the one Juan Borja, Carlos Checa or José Luis Cardoso had fought for. In 1996 Fonsi changed over to the 125 GP class.
From 1996, Fonsi took part in the Spanish 125 GP Championship for three years in a row, racing first with the TMR team, then with the Team Aspar and eventually in his uncle’s team, the Team Angel Nieto. It was with his uncle that he managed to take the Spanish 125 GP Championship title in the 1998 season.
In 1999, Fonsi made a leap in his career and entered Luis d’Antin’s team to race in the 250cc World Championship. In this difficult, competitive class, Fonsi managed to get his first championship points that season finishing nineteenth in the overall classification. He kept racing for Luis d’Antin the following year and improved his results finishing fourteenth in the 2000 World Championship.
His enthusiasm to improve and constantly develop, made him leave the team after two seasons and look for new aims in the care of Jorge Martínez Aspar. That season, on a 250 cc Aprilia, Fonsi began to get into the front positions, taking two podiums, two poles and the fifth place in the overall classification. The step had been taken and Fonsi Nieto had turned to one of the great revelations of the season.
This season Fonsi Nieto starts as one of the favourites for the title. His experience in the category and the instructions of two masters such as Angel Nieto and Jorge Martínez Aspar allow Fonsi to face this new season to fight for a place on the podium each Sunday.
And the 2002 season arrived, the season were Fonsi finally measured himself on the same level against Marco Melandri, a much more experienced rider with whom he would fight for the crown until the penultimate Grand Prix of the season. Last season, Fonsi managed to get four victories, a total of nine podium finishes and also nine pole positions, proving the enormous potential that allowed the Repsol rider become runner-up of the World Championship.
Fonsi started the 2003 season according to all predictions and given the results achieved the previous year, as the great favourite for the title in the quarter-litre class. Several problems during the season start delayed his work to set up the new Aprilia, setting him back in the fight for the championship title. His decision to change back to the 2002 frame improved his results, but irregularity was still the usual tendency and despite getting on the podium in Malaysia and Australia, he lost all options to clinch the title. Finally, after one victory and five podium finishes, Fonsi had to settle for the fifth overall place in the World Championship. This season, the rider of the Repsol Aspar Team hopes to make up for the 2003 season. With all the experience gathered and together with his new teammate, Sebastián Porto, Fonsi Nieto will be fighting on his Aprilia to get the longed-for 2004 World Championship title.
