STATISTICS 2009 August 12Th #11 Cardion Ab Grand Prix Ceské`´ Republiky Brno
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STATISTICS 2009 August 12th #11 Cardion ab Grand Prix Ceské`´ republiky Brno MotoGP facts & figures Forty years of Grand Prix racing at Brno ■ Valentino Rossi scored his very first his year’s Czech Grand Prix will be the 40th to be held at Brno. Below is a brief his- win in GP racing at Brno in 1996 in the Ttory of Grand Prix racing at this famous venue: 125cc class, after starting from pole for the first time in his GP career. From his Only two other venues have hosted more Grand Prix events than Brno: Assen in The Netherlands, which has nine starts in the premier-class at Brno, hosted an event in each of the 61 years of the motorcycling world championship, and Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium which hosted 40 Grand Prix events, the last of which was 1990. Rossi has had four wins and three second Known originally as the Czechoslovakian Grand Prix, the opening event was held at Brno in 1965 on the original place finishes. The only two occasions 13.94 km long road circuit. he failed to finish on the podium was two The circuit was shortened to 10.92 km in 1975 in an effort to improve safety. years ago when he was seventh and in The last premier-class race held on the road circuit at Brno was in 1977 and was won by Johnny Cecotto. The 2002 when he suffered rear tyre failure circuit was subsequently considered too dangerous for the large capacity machines. whilst battling for the lead with great rival The smaller capacity machines continued to compete in Grand Prix races on the Brno road circuit until 1982 Max Biaggi. before it was removed from the Grand Prix calendar for safety reasons. The current circuit was first used for Grand Prix racing in 1987 and hosted the Czechoslovakian Grand Prix through until 1991. Brno did not appear on the calendar for 1992, but the event was revived in 1993 as the ■ Jorge Lorenzo has an excellent record Grand Prix of the Czech Republic and has taken place every year since. in the smaller classes at Brno with a win This will be the 22nd time that the current circuit has hosted a Grand Prix event. in the 125cc class in 2004 and followed by three successive podium finishes on a 250cc machine, including victories in 2006 and 2007. He also started from pole at Brno in each of his three years riding in the 250cc class. Last year he finished tenth after having a disastrous qualifying session when he missed the driest part of the session and his best lap was outside the cut-off time but he was allowed to start at the discretion of Race Direction. ■ Casey Stoner dominated the race at Brno in 2007 by qualifying on pole and leading from start to finish, finally win- ning by almost eight seconds. Last year he again dominated qualifying, ending up with more than a second advantage over the rest of the field and then led in the early laps before crashing out on lap seven. ■ Dani Pedrosa has won in both of the smaller classes at Brno; in the 125cc class in 2003 and on a 250cc machine Valentino Rossi moves up start list in 2005. In his three years in the pre- t the Grand Prix of the Czech Republic, Valentino Rossi is scheduled to make his mier-class his only podium at the Czech A161st start in the premier-class. Rossi made his premier-class debut at the opening GP was in 2006 from ninth on the grid. race of 2000 at Welkom in South Africa and since then he has competed in every single In 2007 he was fourth and last year he 500cc/MotoGP race. As shown in the following table of the riders with most starts, only finished down in 15th suffering from grip four riders have made more starts in the premier-class than Valentino Rossi. problems with his Michelin tyres. RIDERS WITH MOST STARTS IN THE PREMIER-CLASS OF GP RACING ■ Brno is one of Colin Edwards’ less Rider Starts in the MotoGP/500cc class successful circuits, being one of just four 1. Alex Barros 245 where he has not had a top six finish in 2. Carlos Checa 192 his Grand Prix career; the others are Mis- 3. Loris Capirossi 181 ano, Indianapolis and Sepang. Edwards’ 4. Kenny Roberts Jnr 167 second place finish at Donington was his 5. Sete Gibernau 160 best result since he finished second at Valentino Rossi 160 the same circuit two years previously. 7. Jack Findlay 156 8. Randy Mamola 145 9. Norick Abe 144 10. Alex Criville 139 Official statistics compiled by Dr. Martin Raines 1 STATISTICS 2009 August 12th #11 Cardion ab Grand Prix Ceské`´ republiky Brno ■ Andrea Dovizioso has finished second at Brno on three occasions in the smaller Unpredictable MotoGP podium at Donington classes – on each occasion behind Jorge he variable conditions at Donington resulted in a podium which few people would Lorenzo. He finished 9th on his first ride Thave predicted before the start of the race. This podium resulted in a number of inter- at Brno on a MotoGP machine last year – esting statistics: the first rider across the line using Michelin tyres. All three riders were appearing on the podium for the first time in 2009. Prior to the British GP only five different riders had appeared on the podium in the nine MotoGP races that had been held during 2009. ■ made his GP debut at Marco Melandri None of the three riders on the podium had previously won a race in the MotoGP class. The last time that the the Czech GP in 1997 shortly after his 15th three podium finishers had not previously won in the class (in a non-boycotted) premier-class Grand Prix, was at birthday to become the youngest ever rider the Dutch TT in 1980 when local favourite Jack Middelburg won from Graziano Rossi and Franco Uncini. to compete in a Grand Prix at that time. Colin Edwards was appearing on the podium for the first time since he finished third at the Dutch TT last year. Melandri is a three-time winner at Brno in Randy de Puniet was making only his second podium appearance in the MotoGP class – the other was second at the smaller classes; the 125cc race in both the Japanese GP in 2007 when riding for Kawasaki. 1998 and 1999 and the 250cc race in 2002. This was the first time that two riders from satellite teams had appeared together on a podium since the intro- Melandri did not start at Brno in 2007 due duction of the 800cc capacity limit at the start of 2007. to injuries he had received in a crash at the This was the first time since the Malaysian GP last year that two Honda riders had appeared together on a MotoGP podium. previous event at Laguna Seca. Last year he finished 7th at the Czech GP, which was his second best result of 2008. ■ Randy de Puniet won the 250cc race at Brno back in 2003. In 2007 he finished eighth in the MotoGP race at Brno – the first of the Kawasaki riders to cross the line. Last year he crashed on lap six and then remounted to finish 16th and last, just 2 seconds behind Pedrosa. ■ Chris Vermeulen finished in fifth at Brno in 2007, after getting boxed in at the start and finishing the first lap down in tenth. Last year he was sixth at Brno after running as high as second on laps seven and eight. ■ Loris Capirossi will be making his 19th appearance at a Grand Prix eve nt at Brno across the three classes. Capirossi has finished in the top six ten times from his eleven races in the premier-class at Brno, which includes a victory in 2006 and three other podium finishes. ■ Alex de Angelis has had a single podium finish at Brno when competing in the small- er GP classes – third in the 125cc race in 2003. He finished in 8th place last year on his first ride at Brno on a MotoGP machine after starting in 5th place on the grid – his best ever qualifying result in the big class. De Angelis’ fourth place finish at Donington equals his best ever result since moving up to the MotoGP class. ■ James Toseland’s sixth place finish at Donington is the best result in the premier- class by a British rider at the British Grand Prix since the introduction of the 4-stroke MotoGP class in 2002. Toseland was 13th last year on his first race at Brno on a Mo- toGP machine after Race Direction had giv- en him permission to ride in spite of being outside the cut-off qualifying time. 2 STATISTICS 2009 August 12th #11 Cardion ab Grand Prix Ceské`´ republiky Brno ■ Nicky Hayden’s third place in 2007 Andrea Dovizioso’s breakthrough victory was his first podium finish at the Brno ndrea Dovizioso’s first MotoGP victory at Donington followed a disappointing run of circuit. Last year he missed the event results where he did not score points at the three previous events. Below are a num- having cracked his right heel practising A ber of milestones achieved by Dovizioso in taking his first MotoGP victory: on a Supermoto machine. Andrea Dovizioso took his first win since moving up to MotoGP to become the fourth youngest Italian rider to ■ Toni Elias qualified in 13th place at win in the premier-class after Valentino Rossi, Giacomo Agostini and Marco Melandri.