STATISTICS2006 July 20Th #11 Red Bull U.S
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STATISTICS2006 July 20th #11 Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix Laguna Seca MotoGP facts & figures Nicky Hayden and Valentino Rossi compared I Yamaha riders have taken five victo- ince winning at Laguna Seca last year Nicky Hayden has been the rider to challenge ries at Laguna; Eddie Lawson in 1988, SValentino Rossi on a consistent race by race basis. The following table compares the pair Wayne Rainey in 1989, 1990 & 1991 and over the last 20 races, from the USA Grand Prix last year. This shows that Hayden has now Luca Cadalora in 1994. Cagiva won the achieved a similar level of consistency to Rossi’ with each having finished on the podium on 14 500cc race at Laguna Seca in 1993 with occasions during this period. However Rossi still has the edge when it comes to the victory John Kocinski. Nicky Hayden’s win last count, having taken nine wins from his fourteen podiums compared to two victories for Hayden. year was the first in the premier-class However over this twenty race period Rossi has accumulated just 25 points more than Hayden. for Honda at Laguna Seca. RIDER STATS SINCE USA GP 2005 I History indicates that a good grid posi- tion is important to success at Laguna RIDER STARTS WINS PODIUM FINISHES POLES POINTS SCORED Seca; all seven previous winners in the Nicky Hayden 20 2 14 3 315 premier-class have qualified in the first Valentino Rossi 20 9 14 2 340 three places on the grid. I With seven races remaining of the 2006 season Nicky Hayden leads Valentino Rossi in the Championship standings by 26 points. Over the last seven races of 2005 Rossi scored exact- ly 26 points more than Hayden. I Laguna Seca is one of only two circuits on this year’s calendar where Valentino Rossi has not won previously in the pre- mier-class, the other being the Istanbul Park circuit in Turkey. I If Dani Pedrosa wins at Laguna Seca he will be the first rider since Kenny USA riders in MotoGP Roberts Snr. in 1978 to win three or urrent championship leader Nicky Hayden is continuing a strong tradition of riders from the more races in their rookie season. CUSA challenging for victory in the premier-class which has yielded a total of 152 GP vic- tories for the country over the last 30 years of racing. Only Italy, with 192 victories as a nation, I Marco Melandri crashed out on the has had more success, but this has been achieved over a 58 year period since the champions first lap of the USA GP last year after series started in 1949. The first rider from the USA to finish on a Grand Prix podium was Budd being down in eleventh place on the grid, Parriott, in 1965 at the USA GP held at Daytona. There was then a gap of 11 years before the his worst qualifying performance of 2005. next rider from the USA enjoyed podium success, via Pat Hennen who also became the first I Loris Capirossi is the only rider other US rider to win a Grand Prix. than Nicky Hayden who has previously The following table shows career details of all sixteen riders from the USA who have appeared won a Grand Prix at Laguna Seca, having on the podium in the premier-class. taken the victory in the 250cc race 1993. RIDER STARTS WINS PODIUM FINISHES POLES I Four of the regular MotoGP riders have Eddie Lawson 127 31 78 18 never previously raced at Laguna Seca; Kevin Schwantz 104 25 51 29 Dani Pedrosa, Casey Stoner, Randy de Wayne Rainey 83 24 64 15 Puniet and Jose Luis Cardoso. Kenny Roberts 58 22 39 18 Freddie Spencer 62 20 31 27 I Last year at Laguna Seca John Randy Mamola 144 13 54 5 Hopkins was the first rider across the Kenny Roberts Jnr. 153 8 21 10 line using Bridgestone tyres, finishing John Kocinski 71 4 19 9 the race in eighth position. Pat Hennen 24 3 12 0 Nicky Hayden 58 2 18 3 I Colin Edward’s second place last Steve Baker 20 0 7 1 year at the US Grand Prix was his best Mike Baldwin 39 0 6 1 result of the 2005 season. Doug Chandler 54 0 6 2 Colin Edwards 59 0 6 0 I Chris Vermeulen won both of the Scott Russell 19 0 2 0 World Superbike races at Laguna Seca Buddy Parriott 2 0 1 0 in 2004. I Three riders have scored points at each of the ten MotoGP races of 2006: Nicky Hayden, Colin Edwards and Carlos Checa. Official statistics compiled by Dr. Martin Raines STATISTICS2006 July 20th #11 Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix Laguna Seca Closest finish of all time at the German Grand Prix he tremendous battle at the front of the German GP resulted in the first four riders crossing the line separated by just 0.307 sec- T onds. This is the closest ever top four finish in the premier-class in the 58 year history of motorcycle Grand Prix racing, during which time there has been 655 races. The following table shows the ten closest top four finishes of all time in the premier-class (only races that have gone full distance are included), two of which have occurred this year. It is clear from the table that certain circuits favour close racing with the Sachsenring appearing twice, Phillip Island three times and the Suzuka circuit in Japan four times. It is also interesting to note that on four occasions Valentino Rossi has come out on top in these epic battles. CLOSEST TOP FOUR FINISHES EVER IN THE PREMIER-CLASS RACE TIME COVERING TOP 4 FINISHERS RIDERS IN FINISHING ORDER 1 Germany/2006/Sachsenring 0.307 sec Rossi, Melandri, Hayden, Pedrosa 2 Australia/2000/Phillip Island 0.426 sec Biaggi, Capirossi, Rossi, Barros 3 Japan/1991/Suzuka 0.556 sec Schwantz, Doohan, Rainey, Kocinski 4 Australia/2001/Phillip Island 0.714 sec Rossi, Biaggi, Capirossi, Barros 5 Japan/2001/Suzuka 1.176 sec Rossi, McCoy, Biaggi, Abe 6 Germany/2000/Sachsenring 1.263 sec Barros, Rossi, Roberts, Biaggi 7 Australia/1989/Phillip Island 1.510 sec Gardner, Rainey, Sarron, Magee 8 Japan/1993/Suzuka 1.782 sec Rainey, Schwantz, Beattie, itoh 9 Japan/2000/Suzuka 2.002 sec Abe, Roberts, Okada, N. Aoki 10 Italy/2006/Mugello 2.007 sec Rossi, Capirossi, Hayden, Pedrosa Valentino Rossi closes in on Giacomo Agostini alentino Rossi’s victory in Germany was his 86th appearance on the podium in the premier-class from his 107 starts. Another top- Vthree finish at Laguna Seca and he will have achieved just one podium less than the legendary Giacomo Agostini who made 119 starts in the premier-class and won eight world championship titles. As shown in the following table, only Mick Doohan has finished in the top three more times than Agostini with 95 podium appearances from 137 starts. PODIUM FINISHES IN THE PREMIER-CLASS OF GP RACING RIDER TOTAL PODIUM FINISHES WINS 2ND PLACE FINISHES 3RD PLACE FINISHES 1 Mick Doohan 95 54 31 10 2 Giacomo Agostini 88 68 20 0 3 Valentino Rossi 86 57 19 10 4 Eddie Lawson 78 31 31 16 5 Wayne Rainey 64 24 22 18 6 Max Biaggi 58 13 26 19 7 Randy Mamola 54 13 22 19 8 Wayne Gardner 52 18 20 14 9 Kevin Schwantz 51 25 13 13 Alex Criville 51 15 16 20 11 Mike Hailwood 48 37 9 2 12 Barry Sheene 40 19 10 11 13 Kenny Roberts Snr. 39 22 12 5 14 Phil Read 34 11 13 10 15 Loris Capirossi 33 6 10 17 16 Geoff Duke 32 22 5 5 17 Freddie Spencer 31 20 9 2 Alex Barros 31 7 11 13 19 Sete Gibernau 30 9 14 7 20 Luca Cadalora 24 8 9 7 Jack Findlay 24 39 12 John Surtees 24 22 2 0 Carlos Checa 24 2 14 8 STATISTICS2006 July 20th #11 Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix Laguna Seca Colin Edwards scores points in 31 successive races olin Edwards’ twelfth place in Germany was the 31st successive race at which he has scored points. The last race at which CEdwards failed to score points was at the Japanese GP in 2004 when he was involved in a multi-rider crash at the first corner. As shown in the following table the only rider who has had a longer sequence is Mick Doohan. Colin Edwards could break Doohan’s record if he finishes in the top fifteen at all of the remaining seven races this year. LONGEST CONSECUTIVE POINT-SCORING FINISHES IN THE PREMIER-CLASS NUMBER OF CONSECUTIVE POINT SCORING FINISHES 37 Mick Doohan (1995/96/97) 31 Colin Edwards (ongoing) 30 Wayne Gardner (1986/87/88) 28 Eddie Lawson (1983/84/85) Valentino Rossi (2002/03/04) Eddie Lawson (1987/88/89) Grand Prix racing numbers 3002 The total number of Grand Prix points accumulated by Valentino Rossi in all classes of GP racing. Rossi’s victory in Germany resulted in him being the first rider in Grand Prix history to pass the 3000 point milestone. 207 The number of races since the last time that all three podium finishers were from the USA; at the Australian GP at Eastern Creek in 1993 when the first three riders across the line were Kevin Schwantz, Wayne Rainey and Doug Chandler. 24 The number of MotoGP victories for Valentino Rossi since he joined the Yamaha factory team.