Misano MotoGP Race Day Guide
Statistics compiled by Dr. Martin Raines
- Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) is on pole for the first time since the French Grand Prix, and this is the third successive year that he has been on pole at Misano. However, his three wins in the MotoGP class on the Riviera di Rimini have all come after he started from second place on the grid.
- Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) is in second place on the grid – his best qualifying performance at Misano since he was on pole in 2009. Rossi has not won a MotoGP race in Italy since the San Marino GP in 2014.
- This is the first time since the Spanish Grand Prix in Jerez that the two factory Yamaha riders have taken the top two places on the grid.
- Maverick Viñales (Team Suzuki Ecstar) starts from the front row for the fourth time in 2016. Following his win at Silverstone, Viñales will be aiming to be fifth youngest rider of all-time to win back-to-back premier-class grand prix races – after Marc Marquez, Freddie Spencer, Johnny Cecotto and Casey Stoner.
- Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) is in fourth place on the grid; the fifth time this year that he has failed to qualify on the front row. Marquez has only won once in the MotoGP class after not qualifying on the front row – at Valencia in 2014, when he was fifth fastest qualifier.
- Michele Pirro (Ducati Team) is the highest placed Ducati rider in fifth place on the grid, equaling his best ever qualifying result in the MotoGP class; also achieved at Misano, last year.
- Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team), who starts from the final place on the second row in P6, will be aiming to finish on the podium at home in Italy for the first time since he was 3rd at Mugello in 2012.
- Heading the third row of the grid is Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda), who is making his 100th MotoGP start and aiming to become the first British rider since Barry Sheene in 1982 to finish on the podium at three successive premier-class grand prix races.
- Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team), who has qualified in eighth place on the grid, has not finished on the podium in the last five races – his longest sequence of successive race starts without a podium finish since his rookie year in the 125 class in 2001.
- Alvaro Bautista (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) is in 12th place on the grid, which is the best qualifying result in the MotoGP class for Aprilia since Colin Edwards started from seventh on the grid in the Valencian GP in 2003.
