WSBK Phillip Island Stats Smorgasbord – Round 1, Phillip Island – 2015 eni FIM Superbike World Championship
Sylvain Guintoli in the last three years climbed on the podium five times out of six races in Phillip Island, winning race one two years ago and race two last year. In both cases he narrowly missed out on a double win: in 2013 in race two he led for 21 laps before being passed by Eugene Laverty, while last year in race one he led again for 16 laps before being passed by Laverty and team-mate Marco Melandri, finishing third. Sylvain last year was the polesitter, one of his two front row starts in this track together with the third in grid in 2011.
Two podiums out of twelve Phillip Island races for Tom Sykes, third in 2012 in race two and last year, always in race two. Tom missed out on a points finish here only in 2010 in race two, due to a steering damp failure. Sykes was able to start from pole here in 2012: since then he always finished his Phillip Island races between third and seventh.
In his twelve Superbike races run here, Jonathan Rea managed to finish at least once in the positions between fourth and ninth and never retired, always scoring points. He misses a podium finish here though: his best result is a fourth, scored three times (2010 race one, 2011 race two and 2012 race two). Last year he was sixth and fifth. His best grid spot here dates back to his maiden Superbike race in Phillip Island: third in 2009. This is one of the few tracks in which Jonathan raced without climbing on the podium, the others are: Jerez, Monza, Moscow, Sepang and Valencia. During his career, Rea climbed on the podium in fourteen different tracks, winning in eight of them.
Four Superbike races here for Chaz Davies: his best result came in the first one, 2013 race one, when he was fourth from twelfth in grid (first BMW at the flag). Last year he was eighth and seventh. The result in race two could have been better, but a stone pierced his fairing, creating an electronical problem. Chaz last year posted the fastest lap in race one.
Leon Haslam won here from pole for Suzuki (with a 0.004 seconds margin over Michel Fabrizio) the first 2010 race, finishing second, beaten on the line by Carlos Checa, in the following one. At these two podiums he adds two third places, in 2009 in race two with Honda and in 2011 in race one with BMW.
Twelve points finishes for him in fourteen races: he was stopped only by a mechanical failure in 2004 race one and a fall last year in race one, when he was running despite back pain after a fall in practice. He was eventually sixth in race two.
Last year Davide Giugliano was pipped in both races, missing out on a podium spot and finishing fourth twice. In race one he was third for half of the race, but was then passed by Melandri, while in race two he was able to stay with the leading group, but then was passed by Sykes. Davide in his six Superbike races here didn’t score points only in 2013 in race one for a mechanical failure.
Toni Elias last year fell in race one, while in race two managed to finish ninth. The Spaniard in the 125cc class was third in 2001 behind Youichi Ui and Manuel Poggiali, while in the 250cc class was fifth both in 2002 and 2004.
At his first race as a works rider last year, Alex Lowes was immediately in the spotlight: qualified in fifth, he fell in race one while in the top-10 and in race two he climbed through the field after going wide at the first corner after the start. Last on the opening lap, he was able to climb up to ninth with a pace similar to the leading riders, but then made another mistake, finishing fourteenth.
Six Superbike races for David Salom in Phillip Island: the best results last year, when he was ninth and tenth, in both cases the first of the EVO class. He scored pole in the 2011 Supersport race, finishing fourth behind Luca Scassa, Broc Parkes and Sam Lowes: the four at the line were separated by less than three tenths of a second.
Three points finishes out fo four Superbike races in Phillip Island for Niccolò Canepa: tenth in race two in 2012 and tenth and eleventh last year, when he was second in the EVO class in both races behind David Salom.
Sylvain Barrier last year had to miss the Phillip Island races after breaking his hip in testing (18th of February).
The last Superbike races for Leon Camier in Phillip Island date back 2013, when he was twice ninth: those results were influenced by a bad start in race one, which put him back in thirteenth, and by the Davies-Baz accident in race two, which relegated him in seventeenth; Leon had qualified in seventh. Out of eight starts
here, Leon missed out on a points finish only in 2012 in race one, when a contact with Giugliano sent him off-track at the hairpin.
Ayrton Badovini managed to score only two points in five Superbike weekends in Phillip Island, with a fourteenth in race one in 2011, the only time he saw the chequered flag here. For him four mechanical failures and two withdrawals due to injuries in his foot.
At his Superbike debut last year, Imre Toth was sixteenth and nineteenth in Phillip Island.
in his Superbike and Supersport races in Phillip Island, Matteo Baiocco didn’t enjoy much luck so far: two retirements in Supersport in 2004 and 2005 and two more retirements in Superbike in 2009 and 2010. In the latter year he was able to pick up his best result here: seventeenth in race one.
In 2008 here, Santiago Barragan was 33rd in grid and 30th in the Supersport race.
in his eight MotoGP races in Phillip Island, Randy de Puniet scored two sixths as best result: in 2007 and 2011. Sixth is als his best result in the 250cc championship here, scored in 2002.
Leandro Mercado wasn’t able to enter the 2012 races here after injuring himself while training with his Supermoto during the winter.
Only one experience for Roman Ramos in Phillip Island: last year in the Moto2 championship he was 31st in grid and 23rd in the race.
In his three Moto2 races run in Phillip Island, Nicolas Terol was able to score points once, when he was ninth two years ago. In 2010 he climbed on the podium here in the 125 cc race behind his countrymen Marc Marquez and Pol Espargaro.
Four Moto2 races for Jordi Torres in Phillip Island: he managed to climb on the podium two years ago behind Pol Espargaro and Thomas Luthi.
Michael van der Mark in the Supersport championship was fourth in grid and third in the race two years ago, when he had to surrender to Kenan Sofuoglu and Sam Lowes, while last year he was victim of a clash with the aforementioned Sofuoglu, which saw him drop to the back of the field before retiring.
Manufacturers
Aprilia in recent times has been the team to beat in Phillip Island: starting 2011, they won four of the eight races held here and, in the same timespan, when they didn’t win, they were second at the flag. This made Aprilia, together with Kawasaki, Yamaha and Suzuki, the second most successful team here with five wins, trailing Ducati (22). The same performances were achieved in qualifying: since 2011, the best-placed Aprilia in grid was either on pole (2014) or second (2011-2013). In the last two race weekends in Australia they won three races out of four, missing out only last year in race one (Laverty, Suzuki).
BMW posted three podium finishes here: the last one was two years ago with Marco Melandri. Last year the best result for the German manufacturer was an eleventh by Allerton in race one.
Ducati dominates the statistics in Phillip Island, with 22 wins, 51 podiums and 11 poles, however in the last two years they didn’t manage to finish on the podium, scoring two fourths last year with Davide Giugliano. The last Ducati podium here is Carlos Checa’s win in 2012 race two and the last pole came by the same Checa one year later.
Honda‘s best results here, four wins and 25 podium finishes, came a while ago: their last win came in 2007, with James Toseland in race two, while their last podium is a third by Leon Haslam in 2009 in race two. The best finish by a Honda rider in the last two years is a fifth by Rea last year in race two. Jonathan is also the last rider to have qualified a Honda on the front row here, back in 2009 (3rd).
Kawasaki won five times here, but these wins are not related to the most recent years, when Tom Sykes was a regular championship contender: they came in the ’90s, when they won one race with Rob Phillis (1990) and four with Anthony Gobert (1994/2, 1995/2 and a double in 1996). In the last two years Kawasaki managed only two podium finishes in Phillip Island: the second and third last year in race two (Sykes-Baz). Tom Sykes started from pole for Kawasaki here in 2012.
In Phillip Island last year Suzuki won their only race of the season: Eugene Laverty won in race one before the two Aprilias of Marco Melandri and Sylvain Guintoli. To find other podium placements for the Japanese manufacturer in Australia, we have to go back to 2010, when Haslam started from pole, won race one and was second in race two. Since then, Suzuki weren’t able to start from the front row in this track.
