Statistics: From Assen to Monza

Thursday, 07 May 2009 09:23 from: worldsbk.com

SPIES IMPROVES HIS RECORDS: At Assen Ben Spies scored his fourth straight pole and now he only has two poles to go to equal the all-time sequence. Only twice in Superbike history has a longer pole sequence been recorded: in 1993, when Carl Fogarty scored five straight poles from Brno to Assen and in 1991, when Doug Polen scored six straight from Zeltweg to Hockenheim. Spies, after his win in race 1 in Assen, is only one win short of the highest number of wins by a rookie: Davide Tardozzi in 1988 and John Kocinski in 1996 both scored five wins in their maiden Superbike season.

FIRST PODIUM: First podium for Jakub Smrz in race 2 at Assen. It's the first time that a rider from the Czech Republic is able to climb on the podium. The Czech Republic is the sixteenth country to score a podium. At the top of the charts is Australia, with a total of 327 podium finishes.

HASLAM: Leon Haslam posted his best career grid performance at Assen: third. He recorded his best performance in a race as well, second in race 2. For the first time in his career the British rider was able to score podiums in both races during a weekend and in race 1 he also scored his maiden fastest lap.

MONZA PERSONAL SCOREBOARD

Max Biaggi climbed onto the podium in his first Monza race in 2007, then he finished twice in fifth before posting his first retirement;

Carlos Checa was able to qualify on the front row in his maiden appearance in Monza last year, but in the races his best result was an eighth in race 1;

Troy Corser has only been able to take one win out of 24 races run here: in 2005, race 1. The last podium for Troy on the Monza track dates back to 2006, race 2 (second);

Last year, on his sixth attempt, Michel Fabrizio obtained his best result at this track: fifth. The Italian rider won the Superstock 1000 race in 2003;

Since 2006 Noriyuki Haga has turned his Monza scoreboard upside-down: from 1998 to 2005 he only scored one third place in twelve races, posting four retirements; since 2006 he has recorded three wins, a second, a third and a fourth, scoring pole in 2007. Haga is the author of the last three fastest laps in Monza;

Vittorio Iannuzzo in his last four races in Monza has only seen the chequered flag once: in 2006, race 2 (17th);

Yukio Kagayama was second behind Corser in 2005, race 1, then he wasn't able to repeat that performance. Since then he has collected four retirements and three points finishes, the best being a fourth in race 1 last year;

Ryuichi Kiyonari scored his maiden podium at Monza last year, third in race 2;

Regis Laconi always qualified on the front row from 2003 to 2006 and was able to score a double win in 2004. For him a total of four podium places out of fourteen races run, but the last editions were not so lucky for him: four retirements out of five starts;

The best result for Karl Muggeridge is a fourth in race 2 in 2005. The year before, 2004, in the Supersport class he dominated the race with pole, win and fastest race lap;

Max Neukirchner in the first four races run here collected two retirements, a tenth and a twelfth. He fought back last year scoring his maiden win in race 1 and finishing second in race 2;

A couple of tenths are the best result for Jakub Smrz, scored in race 2 in 2007 and race 1 last year;

Makoto Tamada retired in both races last year in his first appearance at this track;

Ruben Xaus retired five times out of twelve races run in Monza. His best result is a sixth, scored in 2001 and 2002.

ANNIVERSARIES OF THE RACE WEEKEND

May 8th 2005: Monza, first front row start for Karl Muggeridge, 25th podium for James Toseland, 25th fastest lap for Suzuki set by Yukio Kagayama;

May 9th 1993, Hockenheim: first win for Scott Russell;

May 10th 1992, Hockenheim, tenth podium for Giancarlo Falappa, 25th podium for Doug Polen, 10th fastest lap for Kawasaki and 25th pole position for Ducati. 1996, Hockenheim: first pole position for Pierfrancesco Chili. 1998, Monza: 100th race start for Scott Russell and first win for Colin Edwards.

MILESTONES AT MONZA

1992 - first podium for Piergiorgio Bontempi. At the time the Italian rider was on his 43rd start. Up to the end of his career (in 2004) Bontempi went on to pick up 2 more podium finishes (Spain and Portugal 1993) but he was never able to win a race.

1995 - first win and first fastest lap for Pierfrancesco Chili and first podium for Colin Edwards;

1996 - 10th fastest lap for Troy Corser;

1998 - first win for Colin Edwards;

1999 - 150th win for Ducati by Carl Fogarty in race 2;

2000 - 25th pole for Honda (Colin Edwards);

2003 - 200th win for Ducati by Neil Hodgson, first fastest lap for Regis Laconi;

2004 - 10th podium for Regis Laconi;

2005 - 10th pole position and 25th fastest lap for Suzuki (Kagayama), 25th podium for James Toseland, first presence on the front row for Karl Muggeridge;

2006: first fastest lap for Alex Barros;

2008: Troy Bayliss scored his 21st pole position, reaching Carl Fogarty at the second all-time place, behind Troy Corser. Max Neukirchner scored his maiden win in race 1, the first for Germany. First podium for Ryuichi Kiyonari.

MONZA SUPERSPORT FLASH DATA

In 2008 Yamaha scored pole, win and fastest lap, breaking a dominance by Honda that had lasted since 2002;

The last Italian to win at Monza was Paolo Casoli, in 2000 on a Ducati 748 R;

Fabrizio Pirovano and Fabien Foret are the only riders to record two wins in Monza in Supersport, respectively in 1997 and 1998 and in 2002 and 2008. Fabien Foret was the only rider to take a Kawasaki Supersport machine onto the podium with a second place in 2007;

The last of the four podiums scored by Ducati in Monza dates back to 2005 when Gianluca Nannelli was third;

The last podium for Suzuki dates back to 2002, a third place by Fujiwara;

MONZA SUPERSTOCK 1000 FLASH DATA

Only Yamaha and Suzuki have been able to win at Monza. The win count is six to four for Suzuki;

Suzuki can count fourteen podium placements against Yamaha's nine.