Czech Grand Prix Brno MotoGP Statistics
Official statistics compiled by Dr. Martin Raines
MotoGP Statistics History of Grand Prix racing at Brno
This year’s Czech Grand Prix will be the 46th to be held at Brno. Below is a brief history of grand prix racing at this famous venue:
- The only venue that has hosted more grand prix events than Brno is Assen in The Netherlands, which has hosted the Dutch TT in each of the 67 years of the motorcycling World Championship.
- The first Czechoslovakian Grand Prix was held at Brno in 1965. The 500cc race held over thirteen laps of the original 13.94 km long road circuit was won by Mike Hailwood (MV Agusta) with a time of 1hr 11 min 23.2 sec.
- The circuit was shortened to 10.92 km in 1975 in an effort to improve safety.
- The last premier-class race held on the road circuit at Brno was in 1977 and was won by Johnny Cecotto riding a Yamaha. The circuit was subsequently considered too dangerous for the large capacity machines.
- Smaller capacity machines continued to compete in grand prix races on the Brno road circuit until 1982 before it was removed from the grand prix calendar for safety reasons.
- The current circuit was first used for grand prix racing in 1987 and hosted the Czechoslovakian GP until 1991. Brno did not appear on the calendar for 1992, but the event was revived in 1993 as the Grand Prix of the Czech Republic and has taken place every year since.
- This will be the 28th time that the current circuit has hosted a grand prix event, during which time the circuit has remained virtually unchanged; minor modifications were made to the circuit in 1996 which extended the length from 5.394 km to the current 5.403 km.
- Since the introduction of the four-stroke MotoGP class in 2002, Honda have had six victories at Brno, Yamaha have had five and Ducati two.
- Honda riders have won at Brno for the last four years, the last Yamaha win was by Jorge Lorenzo in 2010.
- There has only been one podium finish by a Czech rider at the current Brno circuit across all classes – Lukas Pesek’s third place in the 125cc race in 2007 riding a Derbi.
- The best result by a Czech rider in the MotoGP class at the Brno circuit is Karel Abraham’s ninth place finish in 2012.
- The two riders with the most grand prix wins at the current Brno circuit, each with seven, are Max Biaggi (4 x 250cc, 2 x 500cc, 1 x MotoGP) and Valentino Rossi (1x 125cc, 1 x 250cc, 1 x 500cc, 4 x MotoGP).
- The last time a rider qualifying on pole has won the MotoGP race at Brno was Valentino Rossi in 2009. Since 2009 no rider qualifying higher than third place on the grid has won the MotoGP race at Brno.
- Dani Pedrosa won the MotoGP race at Brno last year, ending a run of ten successive race wins by Marc Marquez.
Marc Marquez closing in on Dani Pedrosa – MotoGP Statistics
The victory by Marc Marquez in Indianapolis was the 48th time that he has been on the top step of the podium in his grand prix career. This is just one less GP win than his team-mate Dani Pedrosa, as shown in the following table:
Riders with most Grand Prix Victories (all solo classes)
1 Giacomo Agostini 122 Wins – 68 x 500/MotoGP – 54 x 350cc
2 Valentino Rossi 111 Wins – 85 x 500cc/MotoGP – 14 x Moto2/250cc – 12 x 125cc
3 Angel Nieto 90 Wins – 62 x 125cc – 28 x 80/50cc
4 Mike Hailwood 76 Wins – 37 x 500cc/MotoGP – 16 x 350cc – 21 x Moto2/250cc – 2 x 125cc
5 Jorge Lorenzo 58 Wins – 37 x 500cc/MotoGP – 17 x Moto2/250cc – 4 x 125cc
6 Mick Doohan 54 Wins – 54 x 500cc/ MotoGP
7 Phil Read 52 Wins – 11 x 500cc/MotoGP – 4 x 350cc – 27 x 250cc/Moto2 – 10 x 125cc
8 Dani Pedrosa 49 Wins – 26 x 500cc/MotoGP – 15 x 250cc/Moto2 – 8 x 125cc
9 Marc Marquez 48 Wins – 22 x 500cc/MotoGP – 16 x 250cc/Moto2 – 10 x 125cc
10= Jim Redman 45 Wins – 2 x 500cc/MotoGP – 21 x 350cc – 18 x 250cc/Moto2 – 4 x 125cc
10= Casey Stoner 45 Wins – 38 x 500cc/MotoGP – 5 x 250cc/Moto2 – 2 x 125cc
Livio Loi re-writes the record books – MotoGP Statistics
The rain affected Moto3 race resulted in Livio Loi taking his first grand prix victory and in the process re-writing a number of records with respect to Belgian riders in grand prix racing:
- Loi is the first Belgium rider to win a lightweight-class (Moto3 /125cc) race in the 67 years of motorcycle grand prix racing.
- He is just the fourth Belgium rider to win a grand prix race; the other three are – Xavier Simeon (1 x Moto2 ), Didier de Radigues who won a total of four grand prix races (2 x 350cc, 2 x 250cc) and Julien Van Zeebroeck, who won three times in the 50cc class in the mid 1970s.
- At the age of 18 years 104 days he is the youngest Belgium rider ever to win a grand prix race, taking the record from Didier de Radigues who took his first grand prix win in the 350cc class at Misano in 1982 at the age of twenty four.
- Loi is the first Belgian rider to win a grand prix race outside of Europe.
- His win came after he had been the 26th fastest rider in qualifying. Since 1974 when full qualifying data is available, no lightweight-class grand prix has even been won by a rider qualifying so far down on the grid.
- Loi’s margin of victory was 38.86 seconds – the largest margin of victory in the lightweight-class since Fausto Gresini won the 125cc GP at Le Mans in 1987 by a margin of 42.92 seconds from fellow Italian Ezio Gianola.
- With Loi winning in Indianapolis and Simeon in Germany, it is the first time that two Belgian riders have won grand prix races in the same season.
Grand Prix racing numbers – MotoGP Statistics
- 700 – The win by Marc Marquez in Indianapolis was the 700th grand prix win for Honda across all classes. Click Here for more on Honda’s 700th victory..
- 100 – At the grand prix of the Czech Republic, Marcel Schrotter is scheduled to make his 100th GP start.
- 34 years – On race day at Brno, it will be exactly 34 years ago that Barry Sheene won the 500cc Swedish GP at Anderstorp in 1981. This was the last time a British rider won a grand prix in the premier-class.
- 27 – The pole position for Marc Marquez in Indianapolis was his 27th pole in the MotoGP class, the same number of poles as Dani Pedrosa. The only Spanish rider with more poles in the premier-class is Jorge Lorenzo with 31.
- 22 – The win by Marc Marquez in Indianapolis was his 22nd victory since moving up to the MotoGP class; this is the same number of premier-class race wins as Geoff Duke, Kenny Roberts and John Surtees.
- 22 – Jonas Folger will celebrate his 22nd birthday on the day before practice gets underway at the Czech GP.
- 20 years 248 days – Franco Morbidelli’s third place finish in the Moto2 race in Indianapolis was his first grand prix podium finish. He is the youngest Italian rider to finish on the podium in the intermediate-class of grand prix racing since Andrea Dovizioso in 2006.
- 9 – Johann Zarco has finished on the podium at the last nine successive Moto2 races. This equals the longest sequence of successive grand prix podium finishes by a French rider in any class of GP racing, which was achieved by Olivier Jacque in the 250cc class on his way to taking the world title in 2000. This run of podium finishes by Zarco also equals the longest sequence of successive podium finishes by any rider in the Moto2 class, achieved by Marc Marquez in 2011.
- 4 – At the Indianapolis Grand Prix Alex Rins won for the first time since moving up from Moto3 , to become the fourth youngest winner in the Moto2 class, after Marc Marquez, Maverick Viñales and Shoya Tomizawa.
- 3 – All three of the podium finishers in the Moto3 race at the Indianapolis Grand Prix (Livio Loi, John McPhee and Phillip Oettl) were appearing on a grand prix podium for the first time. The last time that the first three across the line in a grand prix were all first time podium finishers was the 250cc Japanese Grand Prix in 2002, when the first three riders home were: Osamu Miyazaki, Daisaku Sakai and Randy de Puniet. This race was run in wet conditions, causing many riders to crash and resulting in only 16 finishers from the 27 starters.
Moto2 stats and facts
- Johann Zarco has had a single podium finish at Brno – 2nd in the 125cc race in 2011. His best results from three starts at the circuit in the Moto2 class is a fifth in 2013, when he also set the fastest lap of the race while making his way through the field from 15th place at the end of the second lap. Last year Zarco finished the Moto2 race at Brno in 9th place.
- Following his victory at Indianapolis, if Alex Rins wins at Brno he will become the second youngest rider, after Marc Marquez, to take back-to-back wins in the Moto2 class. Rins’ best result at Brno in the Moto3 class was fourth in 2013, when he also qualified on pole. Brno is one of just two circuits, along with Motegi, where Rins has not stood on the podium in his short grand prix career.
- Tito Rabat set a new lap record last year at Brno on his way to winning the race having also qualified on pole position. This was just his second podium appearance at Brno; his other was a 3rd in the 125cc class back in 2010.
- Thomas Luthi has twice finished on the podium at Brno in the Moto2 class: third in 2013 and second in 2012. The Swiss rider won the 125cc race at Brno in 2005 – the year he took the world title in the lightweight class.
- Sam Lowes qualified in fourth place on the grid at Brno last year and then crashed out of the race on the fifth lap while in third place. Lowes has raced at the Brno circuit in the World Supersport championship, finishing 4th in 2012.
- Sandro Cortese finished third last year at Brno – his only podium since moving up to the Moto2 class at the start of 2013. Cortese won the 125cc race at Brno in 2011, which was his first ever grand prix win.
- Mika Kallio has had five podium finishes at the Brno circuit – two in the 125cc class, one in the 250cc class and two in the last two years in the Moto2 class, including a race win in 2013.
- In addition to those mentioned above, other riders currently competing in the Moto2 class who have won at Brno are: Jonas Folger (Moto3 /2012) and Luis Salom (Moto3 /2013).
Moto3 stats and facts
- Danny Kent was on the podium for the first time at Brno last year, in third place – one of only two podium finishes for Kent in 2014. Kent’s 21st place in Indianapolis ended a sequence of eleven top four finishes that started when he was fourth at Sepang last year.
- Enea Bastianini finished second at Brno last year, one of three podium finishes he achieved in his rookie season in grand prix racing.
- Alexis Masbou took his maiden GP victory at Brno last year in what was his 133rd Grand Prix start, all of which have been in the Moto3 /125cc class.
- This set a record for the number of race starts to the first grand prix win in the lightweight class.
- Romano Fenati set a new Moto3 lap record last year at Brno on his way to finishing in eleventh place, just 1.042 seconds behind race winner Alexis Masbou.
- Masbou is the only rider currently competing in the Moto3 class who has won a grand prix race at the Brno circuit.
- Last year at Brno, the last point scoring finisher in the Moto3 race, Czech rider Karel Hanika, crossed the line just 1.838 seconds behind race winner Masbou; this is the closest top fifteen of all-time in the 67 years of motorcycle grand prix racing.
- The last rider to win the lightweight-class (Moto3/125cc) Czech Grand Prix having started from pole position is Thomas Luthi in 2005.
- Following his win in Indianapolis, Livio Loi could become the first ever Belgian rider to take back-to-back grand prix wins.
