MotoGP Facts & Figures prior to Assen

• This will be the seventh consecutive year since 1999 that a Grand Prix has been held at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit in Valencia.
• Yamaha have been the most successful manufacturer at Valencia with three victories. Honda riders have taken two victories and Suzuki one.
• Valentino Rossi has won for the last two years at Valencia, in 2003 on a Honda and last year riding a Yamaha. If Rossi takes the win it will be his 54th race victory in the premier-class, the same number of victories achieved by Mick Doohan on his way to five world titles.
• Marco Melandri won the 250cc race in Valencia in 2002, this being the last race of his 250cc career. Melandri has not had any success in the MotoGP class at this circuit, having missed the race in 2003 due to injuries received in a crash at the previous race in Australia and he crashed out of the race last year on lap eleven.
• Nicky Hayden has not managed to score a point in his previous two appearances in Valencia; he finished 16th in 2003 after crashing early in the race then re-mounting and he crashed again last year when battling for a podium position. If Hayden finishes in the top three he will become the only rider in the premier-class other than Rossi to finish on the podium at four successive races during 2005.
• Colin Edwards has now scored points in twenty successive races since he finished second in Qatar last year.
• Sete Gibernau scored his first ever GP victory at Valencia in 2001 when riding for Suzuki, which is the last time that a Suzuki rider has taken a GP win.
• Max Biaggi needs to score seven points at Valencia to match his previous lowest points total in the premier class, which was in 2000 when he accumulated 170 points to finish third in the championship. In his previous seven years in the premier-class Biaggi has never finished lower than fourth in the final championship standings and has never previously gone a full season without taking at least one victory. Biaggi has had three podium finishes at Valencia (2000, 2002 and 2004) and started from pole on two occasions (2001 and 2002).
• Alex Barros has twice finished on the podium in Valencia including a win in 2002. His ninth place finish in Turkey guaranteed that he will finish in the top ten in the final championship standings for the thirteenth successive year, an achievement matched only by multi world champion Giacomo Agostini.
• Carlos Checa’s fourth place finish in 2001 is his best result at the Valencia circuit.
• Shinya Nakano won the 250cc race in Valencia in 2000, this being the last of his six victories in the smaller class. Nakano still holds the 250cc lap record he set on his way to winning the race in 2000.
• Toni Elias’ sixth place finish in Turkey is his best result since joining the MotoGP class at the start of this year. Elias finished second for the last two years in the 250cc race in Valencia. Elias has scored in all nine races since the USA Grand Prix after missing the three previous races due to injury.
• Makoto Tamada, who celebrates his 29th birthday on the first day of practice, has not qualified on the front row since he qualified on pole last year in Valencia.
• Marco Melandri’s victory in Turkey makes him the second youngest rider to win a MotoGP race since the class was formulated in 2002 with the introduction of 990cc four-stroke machines. As shown in the following table, Valentino Rossi is the only rider to win at a younger age in the MotoGP class since the start of the 2002 season.  The fact that only three riders have triumphed before reaching the age of 27 indicates the importance of experience. Melandri also becomes the fifth youngest rider of all time to win Grand Prix races in three different classes.
• Valentino Rossi arrives at Valencia with a chance of equalling Mick Doohan’s record of twelve premier-class victories in a single season and also his own record of 16 podium finishes. In addition, Rossi could surpass his own record points total for a season (357) which he achieved in 2003. These records have been made more achievable thanks to the 17 races in the 2005 campaign.
• Alex Barros needs to finish 13th or higher in Valencia to become just the seventh rider in Grand Prix history to pass the milestone of scoring a career total of 2000 points. The rider who has accumulated most points is Max Biaggi closely followed by his great rival Valentino Rossi who has scored just 39 points less. Third in the list is Loris Capirossi who needs to finish 12th or higher in Valencia to reach the milestone of 2500 career points.

250cc Facts & Figures

• Honda have taken three victories in the 250cc class at the Valencia circuit, Aprilia two and Yamaha one.
• For the second successive year going into the final race Honda lead the 250cc constructor’s title by a single point from Aprilia.
• A win for Dani Pedrosa in Valencia would be his 15th in the 250cc class, equalling the number achieved by fellow Spaniard Sito Pons who has more wins than any other Spanish rider in the 250cc class.
• Casey Stoner’s victory in Turkey means he is the first Australian rider to have notched five 250cc Grand Prix victories in a single season. If Stoner wins the race in Valencia he will be the first rider ever in the 250cc class to win six or more races in a single season without going on to claim the world title. Stoner scored his first ever GP victory in the 125cc race at Valencia in 2003.
• Hector Barbera, who celebrates his 19th birthday on the Wednesday before the race, won the 125cc race last year in Valencia.
• Randy De Puniet won the 250cc race in Valencia in 2003 after qualifying on pole position and also finished on the podium last year.
• Chaz Davies scored his best ever Grand Prix result last year in Valencia, finishing the race in fifth position.
• As Dani Pedrosa is likely to move to the MotoGP class for 2006 it is probable that he will be making his last appearance on a 250cc machine at Valencia and it is timely to compare his performances in the 250cc class to the champions of recent years. In terms of percentage of races won, Daijiro Kato tops the list closely followed by Valentino Rossi and Pedrosa. In the other two measures, percentage podium finishes and average points per start, Pedrosa outperforms all these other great champions, with Rossi and Kato again closest to Pedrosa in terms of performance.
• He has been threatening to win a race since he finished second at Mugello earlier in the year but Jorge Lorenzo now faces his final chance of becoming the youngest ever winner in the 250cc class at Valencia. If he takes the win this weekend at the age of 18 years and 186 days he will go to the top of the list of riders who have won in the 250cc class whilst still teenagers.

125cc Facts & Figures

• Mika Kallio could still take the 125cc title if he manages to win in Valencia and Thomas Luthi fails to score more than two points. If he does win then he will add to a number of new records he has set during 2005:
  Kallio’s debut GP victory in Portugal was the first ever victory in the 125cc class for a rider from Finland.
  It was also the first win for a Finnish rider in any class since Pentti Korhonen won the 350cc race at the Yugoslavian GP at Opatija in 1975.
  Kallio’s pole position at the Portuguese GP was the first ever by a Finnish rider in a 125cc Grand Prix.
  If Kallio wins the world title it would be the first ever for a Finnish rider in the 125cc class and the first for Finland in any class since Jarno Saarinen won the 250cc title back in 1972.
  It would also be the first time that a KTM rider has won a world title in any class of GP racing.
• Aprilia is the most successful manufacturer in the 125cc class at Valencia with four victories. Both Gilera and Honda have had one victory each.
• Following the Grand Prix of Turkey, KTM are 13 points in front of Honda in the constructor’s championship and will win the title if any KTM rider finishes fourth or higher regardless of Honda’s efforts. This would be the first time since Derbi claimed the title in 1988 that it would be won by a manufacturer other than Honda or Aprilia.
• Thomas Luthi has not had much success previously at Valencia having finished in 24th place in 2002, failed to start the race in 2003 due to mechanical problems and last year he was 14th.
• Mika Kallio has failed to score points in any of his three previous visits to Valencia; he finished 16th in 2002 and crashed out of the race in 2001, 2003 and 2004.
• Alvaro Bautista finished third in the 125cc race last year at Valencia, which was the last time he has stood on the podium.
• Sergio Gadea had his best result of 2004 at the Valencia circuit, finishing in fifth place.
• Manuel Poggiali won the 125cc race in Valencia in 2001 on his way to winning the world title.
• Thomas Luthi arrives in Valencia with a 23 point lead in the 125cc championship making him the hot favourite to take the title. Even if Mika Kallio wins the race then Luthi only needs to finish in 13th place or higher to win the world championship. If Luthi should win the championship it will be significant in a number of ways:
  He would become the youngest ever Swiss rider to win a world championship title in any class.
  At the age of 19 years and 61 days he will become the sixth youngest rider ever to win a world title after Loris Capirossi, Dani Pedrosa, Valentino Rossi, Andrea Dovizioso and Manuel Poggiali.
  Luthi would be the first Swiss rider since Luigi Taveri in 1966 to win the 125cc world title.
  He would also be the first Swiss rider to win a title in any of the solo classes of GP racing since Stefan Dörflinger won the 80cc crown in 1985.
  It would be the first time that Honda have won three successive rider’s titles in the 125cc class.
• Seventeen year old Mike Di Meglio scored his debut GP victory in Turkey to become the youngest ever French rider to win a Grand Prix, taking this record from Christian Sarron who was 22 when he owned the 250cc GP in Germany in 1977.
• Mike Di Meglio’s victory in Turkey extended the sequence of races in the 125cc class without a rider taking back-to back victories to fifty-four, since Arnaud Vincent won at Donington and then Sachsenring in 2002. In the sequence of fifty-four races there have been twenty-one different riders who have taken victory (Cecchinello, Vincent, Azuma, Pedrosa, Poggiali, Perugini, Jenkner, Barbera, Nieto, Lorenzo, Ballerini, Stoner, Dovizioso, Simoncelli, Locatelli, Kallio, Pasini, Luthi, Talmacsi, Simon, Di Meglio) including fourteen first time winners (Jenkner, Barbera, Nieto, Lorenzo, Ballerini, Stoner, Dovizioso, Simoncelli, Kallio, Pasini, Luthi, Talmacsi, Simon, Di Meglio). The previous record for races without a back-to-back winner in the 125cc class was 15. In the 250cc class the record is 15 races without a back-to-back winner and in the MotoGP class the record is 22 races during the 1999 and 2000 seasons.