Red Bull Grand Prix of The Americas – April, 2016
Official MotoGP statistics compiled as of April 6th, 2016 – By Dr. Martin Raines
Circuit of The Americas – Grand Prix racing at Austin
This is the fourth successive year that a MotoGP event has been held at the Austin circuit and below are a selection of facts and stats related to this event:
- In total, there have been 28 previous Grand Prix events hosted in the USA: Daytona – 2, Laguna Seca – 15, Indianapolis – 8 and Austin – 3.
- Marc Marquez has qualified on pole and won all three MotoGP races that have taken place in Austin.
- Andrea Dovizioso on a Ducati has finished on the podium in Austin for the last two years: Third in 2014 and second last year.
- The only podium finishes for Yamaha at Austin are third place finishes for Jorge Lorenzo in 2013 and Valentino Rossi last year.
- Marc Marquez has won on each of the seven occasions that he has raced in the MotoGP class in America; at Austin and Indianapolis for the last three years, and at Laguna Seca in 2013. Only once in these seven appearances in MotoGP in America has Marquez not been on pole; at Laguna Seca in 2013 when he qualified in second place on the grid behind Stefan Bradl.
- Two years ago in Austin, Marquez won by 4.124 seconds – his largest margin of victory in a MotoGP class, in a full dry weather race not involving a pit stop.
- British riders had a great day at the grand prix of Americas last year, with Sam Lowes winning the Moto2 race and Danny Kent the Moto3 race. It was the first time that two British riders have won solo grand prix races on the same day since the Grand Prix of Sweden in 1977 when Barry Sheene won the 500cc race on a Suzuki and Mick Grant the 250cc race riding a Kawasaki.
- The only riders currently competing in the MotoGP class who have won in the class at any of the American circuits are: Valentino Rossi, Dani Pedrosa, Jorge Lorenzo and Marc Marquez.
Marc Marquez equals Dani Pedrosa’s win total
The win by Marc Marquez in Argentina takes him level with his team-mate Dani Pedrosa on 51 grand prix wins across all classes, as shown in the following table of riders with most GP wins:
Marc Marquez levels with Kevin Schwantz
The victory by Marc Marquez in Argentina was the 25th time he has stood on the top step of the podium in the MotoGP class. As shown in the following list, this is the same number of premier-class grand prix wins as 1993 500cc World Champion Kevin Schwantz who was from Houston in Texas.
Riders with most wins in MotoGP/500cc class
- 86 Valentino Rossi (7 premier-class titles)
- 68 Giacomo Agostini (8 premier-class titles)
- 54 Mick Doohan (5 premier-class titles)
- 41 Jorge Lorenzo (3 premier-class titles)
- 38 Casey Stoner (2 premier-class titles)
- 37 Mike Hailwood (4 premier-class titles)
- 31 Eddie Lawson (4 premier-class titles)
- 28 Dani Pedrosa (0 premier-class titles)
- 25 Kevin Schwantz (1 premier-class title),
- 25 Marc Marquez (2 premier-class world titles)
Great day for Malaysia in Argentina
It was a great day for Malaysian riders in the Moto2 and Moto3 races, as shown by the following facts and stats:
- In the Moto3 race Khairul Idham Pawi became the first Malaysian rider to win a grand prix in any class.
- Pawi is just the third Malaysian rider to finish on the podium in grand prix racing, joining: Muhammad Zulfahmi Khairuddin who twice finished on the podium in the Moto3 class, and Hafizh Syahrin who has had a single Moto2 podium.
- At the age of 17 years 196 days, Pawi is the youngest ever non-European rider to win a grand prix race, taking this record from Casey Stoner who was 18 years 17 days old when he won for the first time in the 125cc class at Valencia in 2003. The riders who have won at a younger age than Pawi have all been from either Italy, Spain or the United Kingdom.
- He is the first Asian rider to win a grand prix in any class since Yuki Takahashi won the Moto2 race in Catalunya in 2010.
- Pawi is the first Asian rider to win in the lightweight-class since Tomoyoshi Koyama won the 125cc race in Catalunya in 2007.
- Along with Pawi’s win in Argentina, fellow Malaysian rider Hafizh Syahrin finished sixth in the Moto2 race.
- Both Pawi and Syahrin now lie in fourth place in the respective championship standings. Malaysia are the only nationality to have riders in the top four in the standings in both the Moto2 and Moto3 classes.
Grand Prix racing numbers
- 100 – Both Simone Corsi and Julian Simon are scheduled to make their 100 start in the Moto2 class in Austin.
- 50 – Valentino Rossi’s second place finish in Argentina was the 50th time he has finished in second place in the premier-class.
- 41 – The win by Marc Marquez in Argentina was the 41st time he has stood on the podium in the premier-class and now needs just one more top three finish to equal the number of premier-class podiums achieved by Loris Capirossi.
- 28 years – On race day in Austin it will be exactly 28 years ago to the day that grand prix racing returned to America in 1988 after a break of twenty two years. Eddie Lawson won the 500cc race and American Jim Filice won the
- 250cc race as a replacement rider for Masahiro Shimizu.
- 26 – Bradley Smith’s eighth place finish in Argentina was the 26th successive race at which he has scored points. The last race at which he did not finish in the top fifteen was the British GP in 2014 when he had to call into the pits due to a faulty rear wheel. In the 68 year history of grand prix racing only five riders have had a longer sequence of successive point scoring finishes in the premier-class: Mick Doohan (37 successive points scoring finishes), Colin Edwards (34), Wayne Gardner (30), Eddie Lawson (28) and Valentino Rossi (28).
- 25 – Axel Pons, who finished eight in the Moto2 race in Argentina, celebrates his 25th birthday on the day of qualifying in Texas.
- 16 – Sixteen different riders have appeared on the podium across the three classes at the opening two grand prix events of the year. The only two riders have finished on the podium in both of the opening two races of the year are Marc Marquez in the MotoGP class and Brad Binder in the Moto3 class.
- 15 years – On the first day of practice in Austin it will be exactly fifteen years since Valentino Rossi won the opening race of the final season of 500cc Grand Prix racing, giving Honda their 500th GP victory across all classes. Garry McCoy finished second in that race while Max Biaggi rounded out the podium. 25 riders entered the race, including three Australians, the aforementioned Garry McCoy who took second, while Mark Willis and Marcus Payten failed to make the race, as did a dozen other riders that weekend. Our full race report from that event is here.
- 12 – The last twelve MotoGP races in the USA have all been won by Honda riders. The last non-Honda MotoGP winner in the USA was Jorge Lorenzo, at Laguna Seca in 2010.
- 9 – Johann Zarco’s win in Argentina was his 9th victory in the Moto2 class. Only three rider have stood on the top step of the podium on more occasions in Moto2: Marc Marquez – 16 Moto2 wins, Tito Rabat – 13 and Pol Espargaro – 10.
- 7 – By finishing seventh in Argentina Stefan Bradl gave Aprilia their best result in the MotoGP class since Noriyuki Haga finished seventh at the British Grand Prix at Donington in 2003. With Alvaro Bautista finishing 10th in Argentina it was also the first time since that race at Donington in 2003 (when Colin Edwards was 10th) that Aprilia have had two bikes finish in the top ten in the MotoGP class.
Moto2 stats and facts
- Thomas Luthi missed the race in Austin three years ago; he completed the first day of practice, but then withdrew from the event still suffering with injuries from a pre-season crash. In 2014 he finished 6th in Texas and last year after technical problems in qualifying left him down in 17th place on the grid, he finished the first lap in 25th place before pulling through the field to finish 12th.
- Johann Zarco finished 6th in the Moto2 race three years ago in Austin, having started the race down in 17th place on the grid. In 2014 he was the second fastest Moto2 qualifier in Austin, but crashed out of the race on the second lap. Zarco led the race in Austin last year for the first thirteen laps before being passed by Lowes and eventually finishing second.
- Alex Rins won the Moto3 race in Austin in 2013 and finished 4th in the Moto3 race two years ago. Last year he finished 3rd in Texas, in just his second start in the Moto2 class.
- Sam Lowes won the Moto2 race in Austin last year – his first win in the Moto2 class.
- Xavier Simeon qualified on pole last year in Austin, but crashed out of the race on the sixteenth lap when battling with Zarco for second place. He also led the Moto2 race in Austin two years ago from the third lap up to lap thirteen, when he ran wide at Turn 1 and dropping back to fifth; he then crashed at the final corner on the penultimate lap when pushing to get back into podium contention.
- Danny Kent qualified on pole, and won the Moto3 race in Austin last year by more than eight seconds.
- Hafizh Syahrin’s sixth place finish at the Grand Prix of the Americas last year was his best result of 2015 in full dry conditions.
Moto3 stats and facts
- Brad Binder leads the way in the Moto3 championship classification after the first two races of the year – the first South African rider to lead a grand prix championship across all classes since Jon Ekerold led the 350cc title chase after the opening two races of the 1981 season. Binder retired from the race two years ago in Austin and last year he finished fifth.
- Niccolo Antonelli has crashed out of the Moto3 race in Austin in each of the last three years, last year he re-started to finish 23rd
- On his first visit to Austin last year, Jorge Navarro crashed out of the Moto3 race on the tenth lap when in the group battling for a podium finish.
- Fabio Quartararo finished second last year in Austin, in just his second grand prix start in the Moto3 class.
- Only two riders currently competing in the Moto3 class have had podium finishes in the previous three years that the grand prix event has been held in Austin – second place finishes for Romano Fenati in 2014 and Fabio Quartararo last year.
- Enea Bastianini just missed out on a podium last year when he lost out to Vazquez in the sprint to the line by less than two tenths of a second.
- In Argentina, Joan Mir finished fifth in what was only his third start in grand prix racing.
