MotoGp 2004 - Statistical Facts prior to Catalunya

This is the 13th consecutive year that the Circuit de Catalunya has been used since it was first included in the Motorcycle Grand Prix series in 1992.
Yamaha won the 500cc race on the first three occasions it was held at Catalunya, the last of which was with Luca Cadalora back in 1994. Honda have had seven wins in the premier class at this circuit. Suzuki’s only victory came in 2000 with Kenny Roberts. Loris Capirossi’s victory last year was the first ever for Ducati in the premier-class.
If the MotoGP race in Catalunya is not won by a rider taking his debut win in the class then it will be 35 races since the last time there was a first time winner in the premier-class, that being Tohru Ukawa at the South African GP in 2002. This equals the current record for the longest ever string of races in the premier-class without a rider taking his debut win, from the Czech GP in 1966 to the Ulster GP in 1969, when all 35 races were won by either Mike Hailwood or Giacomo Agostini, a sequence that was ended by Alberto Pagani winning at Imola riding the Linto machine.
Valentino Rossi has won in Catalunya on five occasions, riding a 125cc machine in 1997 and on a 250cc in both 1998 and 1999, and in the premier-class in 2001 and 2002. He is the only rider to have won in all three classes at the Catalan circuit. Rossi’s victory in Italy was the first for Yamaha at Mugello since 1991 when Wayne Rainey was the winner.
Sete Gibernau has had mixed fortunes in Catalunya having crashed out on three occasions (1997, 2000 and 2002) and scoring top five finishes on four occasions, including podium finishes in 1999 and last year. If Sete Gibernau should qualify on pole in Catalunya he will be the first rider other than Rossi to take three consecutive pole positions in the premier class since Max Biaggi in 2001.
Valentino Rossi scores points in 26 consecutive races - Valentino Rossi’s win in Italy was his 26th consecutive point scoring race. The last time Rossi failed to score points was when he retired from the race with tyre problems at the Czech GP at Brno in 2002. Only three riders have longer streaks of consecutive point scoring finishes in the premier-class, as shown in the following table. The only rider who appears twice in this list is four-times World Champion Eddie Lawson.
Longest Consecutive Point-scoring Finishes in the premier-class
37 Mick Doohan (1995/96/97)
30 Wayne Gardner (1986/87/88)
28 Eddie Lawson (1983/84/85)
26 Eddie Lawson (1986/88/89)
26 Valentino Rossi (ongoing)
24 Regis Laconi (1999/2000)
23 Max Biaggi (2000/01)
22 Giacomo Agostini (1967/68/69)
21 Alberto Puig (1994/95)
21 Alex Barros (1996/97)
Alex Barros closing in on Giacomo Agostini - Alex Barros needs just one more top fifteen finish to equal Giacomo Agostini at the top of the all-time list of riders with most point scoring finishes in all classes of Grand Prix racing. Equal third is Loris Capirossi, while Max Biaggi (fifth place in the list) will be aiming for his 150th point scoring finish in Catalunya.
Giacomo Agostini 172
Alex Barros 171
Angel Nieto 163
Loris Capirossi 163
Max Biaggi 149
Luca Cadalora 145
Alex Criville 143
Anton Mang 139
Phil Read 138
Bruno Kneubühler 138
Jorge Martinez 138
Sete Gibernau’s impressive statistics - Since joining the Telefonica Movistar Honda Team at the start of last year, Sete Gibernau has now competed in 20 Grand Prix and racked up an impressive list of results: He has won a total of six races since the start of the 2003 season and finished on the podium on fourteen occasions. Only on two occasions in the past twenty races has he failed to finish in the top four; at Jerez last year when he crashed and at Mugello 12 months ago when he finished in seventh place. He has now scored points in seventeen consecutive races and stood on the podium at the last five. Since the start of 2003 he has averaged a score of 18.15 points per Grand Prix. In addition he has scored three pole positions and started from the front row on thirteen occasions. He has scored back-to-back pole positions for the first time in his GP career at the last two races. At Jerez and Le Mans he took back-to-back victories for the first time in his GP career. This made him the first rider other than Rossi to score back-to-back victories in the premier-class since Garry McCoy won in Portugal and then Valencia in 2000.
Although Max Biaggi’s second place finish in 1999 is his only podium finish at Catalunya in the premier-class, he has had considerable success in the 250cc class at this circuit with four GP victories and four pole positions.
Alex Barros has raced in every premier class Grand Prix held in Catalunya. His best results have been fifth place in 1993 riding a Suzuki and in 2002 on the two-stroke Honda. In 2000 he qualified on pole in Catalunya but suffered machine failure having just taken the lead and having set the fastest lap of the race.
Carlos Checa scored his first ever GP win at Catalunya in 1996 and also finished on the podium in 1997 and 2002.
Loris Capirossi’s victory last year at Catalunya is the only win so far for Ducati in the premier-class of Grand Prix racing.
Troy Bayliss’ fourth place finish at Mugello is the best result any Ducati rider has achieved during 2004.
Ruben Xaus fifth place finish at Mugello is the best result so far in 2004 for any of the rookies in the premier class.
Norick Abe’s seventh place finish in Italy is his best result since he finished in sixth place at the Rio GP in 2002.
British riders Shayne Byrne and Neil Hodgson both scored their best result of the year at Mugello, in tenth and eleventh place respectively.
Chris Burns will celebrate his 24th birthday on the final day of qualifying in Catalunya.
Max Biaggi aiming for half-century of podium finishes - Max Biaggi’s third place finish in Italy was the 49th time that he has stood on the podium in the premier-class of Grand Prix racing. This is one more than the total achieved by Mike Hailwood, who won the 500cc title on four occasions in the 1960’s.
Checa on target for 100th point scoring finish in the premier class - Carlos Checa requires just one more top fifteen finish to make him just the seventh rider in the 55 year history of Grand Prix racing to reach the milestone of 100 point scoring finishes in the premier-class. The following list of riders is headed by Alex Barros, who is also the rider who has made most starts in the premier-class.
Alex Barros 159
Mick Doohan 120
Alex Criville 111
Eddie Lawson 110
Randy Mamola 109
Norick Abe 106
Carlos Checa 99
Giacomo Agostini 95
Kenny Roberts Jnr 87
Wayne Gardner 86
Niall Mackenzie 86
Valentino Rossi takes third place from Loris Capirossi - The twenty-five points Valentino Rossi scored in Italy moved him above Loris Capirossi into third place in the all-time point’s scorers in Grand prix racing. The following list, which is headed by Max Biaggi, shows the ten riders who have accumulated most points in all solo classes of motorcycle Grand Prix racing.
Max Biaggi 2574
Mick Doohan 2298
Valentino Rossi 2264
Loris Capirossi 2259
Alex Criville 2012
Angel Nieto 2008
Luca Cadalora 1952
Giacomo Agostini 1949
Alex Barros 1744
Ralf Waldmann 1668
Close 125cc racing at Mugello - The exciting 125cc race at the Italian Grand Prix often had several lead changes during any one lap and at the end, with just 0.879 seconds covering the top six riders across the line, the race enters the record books as the sixth closest of all time in terms of the time covering the top six finishers. This was the second time that Locatelli has taken victory in a close finish at Mugello, he also won in 1999 with less than two and half seconds covering the top 12 finishers across the line. Close 125cc racing is becoming a tradition at Mugello in recent years and in addition to this year’s race and the one from 1999, the 2002 event won by Manuel Poggiali also appears in the following list of closest 125cc GP races of all time.
Top six finishers in a 125 GP - List of closest top six finishes
1. Yugoslavia/1990/Rijeka (Stefan Prein) 0.572 sec
2. Valencia/2001/Valencia (Manuel Poggiali) 0.586 sec
3. Italy/1999/Mugello (Roberto Locatelli) 0.588 sec
4. Czech Rep./2002/Brno (Lucio Cecchinello) 0.717 sec
5. Catalunya/1998/Catalunya (Tomomi Manako) 0.724 sec
6. Italy/2004/Mugello (Roberto Locatelli) 0.879 sec
7. Germany/1992/Hockenheim (Bruno Casanova) 0.883 sec
8. Rio/2003/Jacarepagua (Jorge Lorenzo) 0.899 sec
9. Czech Rep./1997/Brno (Noboru Ueda) 0.960 sec
10. Italy/2002/Mugello (Manuel Poggiali) 0.980 sec
Record twenty-seven races in 125cc without a back-to-back winner - There has now been a record 27 races in the 125cc class since the last back-to-back wins achieved by Arnaud Vincent at Donington and then Sachsenring in 2002. The previous record was 15 races in the 125cc class without back-to-back winners. In this sequence of twenty-seven races there have been fifteen different riders who have taken victory (Cecchinello, Vincent, Azuma, Pedrosa, Poggiali, Perugini, Jenkner, Barbera, Nieto,
Lorenzo, Ballerini, Stoner, Dovizioso, Simoncelli. Locatelli) including eight first time winners (Jenkner, Barbera, Nieto, Lorenzo, Ballerini, Stoner, Dovizioso, Simoncelli).
The full sequence of winners is given below: 2002/2003/2004 ongoing – 27 races without a successive winner starting at Czech GP in 2002 – Cecchinello, Vincent, Azuma, Pedrosa, Vincent, Poggiali, Pedrosa, Perugini, Pedrosa, Cecchinello, Pedrosa, Cecchinello, Pedrosa, Jenkner, Barbera, Perugini, Pedrosa, Nieto, Lorenzo, Barbera, Pedrosa, Ballerini, Stoner, Dovizioso, Simoncelli, Dovizioso, Locatelli.
Aprilia have won the 250cc race seven times at Catalunya and Honda four times. Olivier Jacque’s win in 2000 was the only win in the 250cc class for Yamaha at this circuit.
250 Championship leader Randy De Puniet scored his first ever Grand Prix win last year at the Grand Prix of Catalunya after qualifying on pole.
250 rider Dani Pedrosa has finished on the podium in the 125cc class for the last two years in Catalunya, including taking the race victory last year.
Sebastian Porto’s 250 victory in Italy was his first ever dry weather Grand Prix win in what was his 127th Grand Prix start in the 250cc class. This was also Aprilia’s first victory of 2004 in the 250cc class.
Fonsi Nieto has finished on the podium for the last two years in Catalunya and also qualified on pole in 2002.
Manuel Poggiali’s third place 250 finish in Italy was his first podium finish since the last race of 2003 in Valencia. Poggiali won the 125cc race at Catalunya in 2002 after qualifying on pole position.
Last year at the Catalan GP Anthony West scored his first ever GP podium, becoming the first Australian to finish on the podium in a 250cc Grand Prix since Graeme McGregor came second at the Belgium GP at Spa-Francorchamps back in 1982.
Honda have had seven wins in the 125cc class at the Catalan circuit and Aprilia have had four wins. Gilera took their only win at this circuit in 2002 with Manuel Poggiali.
Roberto Locatelli’s victory at Mugello was his first GP win since he won the Pacific GP at Motegi in 2000, the year he took the 125cc World Title.
Championship leader Andrea Dovizioso has not previously managed to finish a GP race in Catalunya having crashed out of the race in both 2002 and last year.
Casey Stoner set a new lap record at Catalunya last year then crashed after nearly colliding with Dovizioso.
Hector Barbera crashed out of the Catalunya GP last year after qualifying on the front row of the grid for the first time in his Grand Prix career.
Thomas Luthi scored his first and so far only podium of his GP career last year at Catalunya, finishing in second place just 0.137 seconds behind the winner Dani Pedrosa.