STATISTICS2006 July 20th #11 U.S. Grand Prix Laguna Seca

MotoGP facts & figures and 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; in 1988, SValentino Rossi on a consistent race by race basis. The following table compares the pair in 1989, 1990 & 1991 and over the last 20 races, from the USA Grand Prix last year. This shows that Hayden has now in 1994. 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 . 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 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 circuit in Turkey.

I If 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 , with 192 victories as a nation, I 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 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; 104 25 51 29 Dani Pedrosa, , Randy de Wayne Rainey 83 24 64 15 Puniet and Jose Luis Cardoso. 58 22 39 18 62 20 31 27 I Last year at Laguna Seca John 144 13 54 5 Hopkins was the first rider across the Kenny Roberts Jnr. 153 8 21 10 line using 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. 54 0 6 2 59 0 6 0 I 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 .

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 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 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 appearing twice, Phillip Island three times and the Suzuka circuit in 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 /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 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 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 58 13 26 19 7 Randy Mamola 54 13 22 19 8 52 18 20 14 9 Kevin Schwantz 51 25 13 13 Alex Criville 51 15 16 20 11 48 37 9 2 12 40 19 10 11 13 Kenny Roberts Snr. 39 22 12 5 14 34 11 13 10 15 Loris Capirossi 33 6 10 17 16 32 22 5 5 17 Freddie Spencer 31 20 9 2 31 7 11 13 19 30 9 14 7 20 Luca Cadalora 24 8 9 7 24 39 12 John 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. This is the same number of wins achieved by Wayne Rainey riding for Yamaha. Only Eddie Lawson has had more success in the premier-class riding for Yamaha, with 26.

9 The number of previous World Championship Grand Prix events held in the USA. The first two GP events held in the United States in 1964 and 1965 took place at the Daytona circuit, the other seven have all been held at the Laguna Seca circuit.

5 Valentino Rossi has qualified outside the top ten five times in the first ten races of 2006.

4 Dani Pedrosa is the first rider in the premier-class to qualify on pole at four races in his rookie season since Freddie Spencer back in 1982.

1 Of the seven premier-class races held at Laguna Seca the only non-USA rider who has won is Luca Cadalora in 1994.

This week in history

5 years ago – German GP/Sachsenring/2001/500cc – Max Biaggi won from Carlos Checa and ; the last time that all three podium finishers have been riding Yamaha machinery.

9 years ago – German GP/Nurburgring/1997 – Mick Doohan won on the final visit to the new Nurburgring circuit built close to the original 22.8 km circuit which was first used to hold a motorcycle Grand Prix event back in 1955.

18 years ago – French GP/Paul Ricard/1988/500cc – Eddie Lawson won from and Kevin Schwantz in what is con- sidered to be one of the best 500cc races of all time, with the first three riders across the line being separated by less than half a sec- ond for the first time ever. Fourth place finisher Wayne Gardner had led the race starting the last lap but was slowed with mechanical problems.

21 years ago – French GP/Le Mans/1985 – Freddie Spencer riding for Honda won both the 500cc race and the 250cc race on his way to winning both world titles. This was the last time that a rider has won races in both these classes at a single Grand prix event.

27 years ago – Swedish GP/Karlskoga/1979/250cc – Graziano Rossi, father of Valentino, won his third and last Grand Prix riding the factory machine.

31 years ago – Finnish GP/Imatra/1975/500cc – Giacomo Agostini riding a Yamaha won the 500cc race after fellow Italian Gianfranco Bonera had qualified on riding the MV-. This was the final occasion in the 500cc class that a four stoke machine started from pole position.

40 years ago – Czech GP//1966 – Mike Hailwood won the 250cc, 350cc and 500cc races on the same day riding Honda factory machines. The combined distance of the three races was 460 km, with a combined race time of 3 hours 5 minutes and 52.8 seconds.