- Alex Barros, who made his Grand Prix
debut more than 16 years ago, is scheduled
to make his 200th Grand Prix start at the Grand Prix of Catalunya.
Barros made his GP debut in the 80cc class at the Spanish GP at
Jarama in 1986 aged just 15 years old. After
competing in the 80cc class at Grand Prix level during 1986 and 1987,
he made just one GP start in 1988 at his home race in Brazil
riding a 250cc machine. He returned to the GP scene full-time in 1989,
riding a Yamaha in the 250cc class. In 1990,
still aged just 18, he signed for the
factory Cagiva Team to race in the 500cc class.
During his three year spell on the Cagiva his best result was a
third place finish at the Dutch TT in 1992.
During 1993 and 1994 he was Kevin Schwantz ’s team mate in the Lucky
Strike Suzuki Team, taking his first GP win
at the last race of 1993 at Jarama. For 1995 he set up his own team
together with Erv Kanemoto, running a leased
factory Honda. During 1996 he rode a Honda
for Team Pileri, finishing the year in 4th
place in the final Championship standings.
Moving to Team Gresini for 1997,still with Honda machinery but this
time the new V-twin customer bike, he
finished in third place at the British GP at Donington which was the
only time a privateer V-twin Honda finished on the podium.
He stayed with Team Gresini for 1998,this time riding the
four-cylinder Honda, a machine he has remained faithful to up to the
present day. Since 1999 Barros has ridden
for the Honda Pons Team, finally getting his
second Grand Prix win at the Dutch TT in 2000 and his first pole
position at the Italian GP. The Catalan
Grand Prix will be the 630th Grand Prix event that has been staged in
the 53-year history of World Championship racing
,therefore remarkably, Barros has
appeared in 31.7%of all GP meetings. The
following tables list the current riders with most Grand Prix starts.
|
Ranking |
Rider |
Total Starts |
500 |
250 |
125 |
| 1 |
Alex Barros |
199 |
168 |
14 |
17 |
| 2 |
Loris Capirossi |
175 |
64 |
84 |
27 |
| 3 |
Noboru Ueda |
154 |
|
|
154 |
| |
Max Biaggi |
154 |
67 |
87 |
|
| 5 |
Jurgen VD Goorbergh |
152 |
81 |
71 |
|
| 6 |
Tetsuya Harada |
134 |
37 |
97 |
|
| 7 |
Jeremy McWilliams |
133 |
75 |
78 |
|
| 8 |
Carlos Checa |
125 |
97 |
27 |
1 |
| 9 |
Lucio Cecchinello |
122 |
|
|
122 |
| 10 |
Nobuatsu Aoki |
121 |
64 |
57 |
|
- Valentino Rossi has won in Catalunya on four occasions,
riding a 125cc machine in 1997 and on a 250cc in both 1998 and
1999, and the 500cc race last year. His win
last year made him the first rider to have won in all three classes at
the Catalan circuit.
- Yamaha won the 500cc race on the first three occasions it was held
at Catalunya, with Rainey in 1992/93 and Cadalora in 1994.
Honda have had six wins at this circuit,
five in a row from 1995 with Criville (1995 & 1999), Doohan
(1997 & 1998) and Checa (1996), then last year with Rossi. In 2000
Suzuki took their only win in Catalunya with Kenny Roberts.
- Tohru Ukawa set a new lap record at Mugello, which had been held
by Mick Doohan from 1998. This was the only circuit currently in use
at which Doohan had still held the lap record.
- Tohru Ukawa’s top speed of 324.5 km/hr (201.6 mph) achieved in the
final qualifying session at Mugello is a new official maximum speed
record in Grand Prix racing. Earlier in the
same session Regis Laconi became the first to crack the 200 mph
barrier in the MotoGP class. Max Biaggi recorded the fastest
top speed during the race being the only rider to break the 200
mph barrier.
- John Hopkins is one of five riders who have scored points in every
MotoGP race this year, the others being
Rossi, Capirossi,
Abe and Laconi.
- With Casey Stoner missing out on starting in Italy it was the
first time since the San Marino Grand Prix in 1984 at Mugello that
there was no Australian rider starting in any of the three classes.
|
