Twin Ring Motegi MotoGP Statistics 2014 | Motul Grand Prix of Japan | Official statistics compiled by Dr. Martin Raines
Grand Prix racing at Motegi – The Motegi circuit was first added to the Grand Prix schedule in 1999 and has hosted a GP event every year since. Below are some facts and figures about Grand Prix racing at Motegi:
- This will be the 16th occasion on which a Grand Prix event has been held at the Motegi circuit
- Since the introduction of the four-stroke MotoGP formula in 2002, Honda have had five MotoGP victories at Motegi, Ducati four and Yamaha three
- Dani Pedrosa is the rider with most GP wins at the Motegi circuit with four to his name (2 x MotoGP, 1 x 250cc, 1 x 125cc)
- Last year, Jorge Lorenzo became the first rider to win the MotoGP race at Motegi from pole since Loris Capirossi in 2006
- The Motegi circuit has twice been the circuit at which the MotoGP world title has been secured, in 2007 (Casey Stoner – Ducati) and 2008 (Valentino Rossi – Yamaha). The only two other riders who have secured world titles at the Motegi circuit are: Roberto Locatelli in the 125cc class in 2000 and Pol Espargaro in the Moto2™ class last year
- Home riders have taken eight GP victories at the Motegi circuit: Masao Azuma – 125cc/1999, Shinya Nakano – 250cc/1999, Daijiro Kato – 250cc/2000, Tetsuya Harada – 250cc/2001, Youichi Ui – 125cc/2001, Makoto Tamada – MotoGP/2004 and Hiroshi Aoyama – 250cc in both 2005 and 2006
Title Chance: – Marc Marquez title-winning chances at Motegi – Although Marc Marquez only managed to finish 13th in Aragon, he did finish one place ahead of team-mate and closest championship challenger Dani Pedrosa, and in doing so increased his lead in the title chase to 75 points. To win the title at Motegi, Marquez needs to finish ahead of his team-mate Dani Pedrosa. In addition to this, he needs to lose no more than 3 points to Valentino Rossi and lose no more than 15 points to Jorge Lorenzo. Listed below are the nine scenarios that would win the world title for Marquez in Japan:
- Marquez winning the race
- Marquez finishing second or third, ahead of both Pedrosa and Rossi
- Marquez finishing fourth, ahead of Pedrosa and with Rossi finishing third or lower
- Marquez finishing fifth, ahead of Pedrosa with Rossi finishing fourth or lower
- Marquez finishing sixth, ahead of Pedrosa with Rossi finishing fourth or lower
- Marquez finishing seventh, ahead of Pedrosa, with Rossi fifth or lower and Lorenzo not winning the race
- Marquez finishing in positions eight to 11, ahead of Pedrosa, with Rossi no more than three places ahead and with Lorenzo not winning the race
- Marquez finishing in positions 12 to 15, ahead of Pedrosa, with Rossi no more than three places ahead and with Lorenzo not finishing either first or second
- Neither Marquez nor Pedrosa scoring points, with Rossi finishing 13th or lower and Lorenzo not on the podium
Jorge Lorenzo moving up all-time winners list – Jorge Lorenzo’s victory in Aragon was the 53rd time he has stood on the top step of the podium in his Grand Prix career. This moves him into a clear sixth place in the all-time winners list, with one more victory than Phil Read. Lorenzo needs just one more Grand Prix win to equal the total number of victories achieved by five-time 500cc World Champion Mick Doohan.
- Giacomo Agostini 122 | 68 x MotoGP/500 | 54 x 350cc
- Valentino Rossi 107 | 81 x MotoGP/500 | 14 x Moto2/250 | 12 x 125
- Angel Nieto 90 | 62 x 125 | 28 x 80/50cc
- Mike Hailwood 76 | 37 x MotoGP/500 | 16 x 350cc | 21 x Moto2/250 | 2 x 125
- Mick Doohan 54 | 54 x MotoGP/500
- Jorge Lorenzo 53 | 32 x MotoGP/500 | 17 x Moto2/250 | 4 x 125
- Phil Read 52 | 11 x MotoGP/500 | 4 x 350 | 27 x Moto2/250 | 10 x 125
- Dani Pedrosa 49 | 26 x MotoGP/500 | 15 x Moto2/250 | 8 x 125
- 9 = Jim Redman 45 | 2 x MotoGP/250 | 21 x 350 | 18 x Moto2/250 | 4 x 125
- 9 = Casey Stoner 45 | 38 x MotoGP/500 | 5 x Moto2/250 | 2 x 125
120 podium finishes for Jorge Lorenzo – Jorge Lorenzo’s win in Aragon marked the 120th time that he had stood on a GP podium across all classes, just one less than Phil Read, as shown in the following table:
Riders with most podium finishes (all solo classes of Grand Prix racing)
- Valentino Rossi 192 | 107 wins | 50 seconds | 35 thirds
- Giacomo Agostini 159 | 122 wins | 35 seconds | 2 thirds
- Angel Nieto 139 | 90 wins | 35 seconds | 14 thirds
- Dani Pedrosa 134 | 49 wins | 48 seconds | 37 thirds
- Phil Read 121 | 52 wins | 44 seconds | 25 thirds
- Jorge Lorenzo 120 | 53 wins | 42 seconds | 25 thirds
- Mike Hailwood 112 | 76 wins | 25 seconds | 11 thirds
- Max Biaggi 111 | 42 wins | 41 seconds | 28 thirds
- Loris Capirossi 99 | 29 wins | 34 seconds | 36 thirds
- Jim Redman 98 | 45 wins | 33 seconds | 20 thirds
11 pole positions for Marc Marquez in 2014 – Marc Marquez has already started from pole position on 11 occasions across 2014. He now needs just one more pole this season to equal the record number of poles achieved in a single campaign of the premier-class of Grand Prix racing since full records became available in 1971, as shown in the following list:
Riders with most poles in the premier-class in a single season (since 1971)
- 12 – Mick Doohan – 1997
- 12 – Casey Stoner – 2011
- 11 – Marc Marquez – 2014
- 10 – Freddie Spencer – 1985
- 10 – Wayne Gardner – 1987
Grand Prix racing numbers
65 – Following the Aragon Grand Prix, Honda heads the Constructors Championship by 65 points from Yamaha. At Motegi, Honda needs to extend this lead by at least ten points to clinch their 21st Constructors’ title in the premier-class
37 – This is the 37th occasion on which a Grand Prix event has been held in Japan. The very first Japanese Grand Prix was held back in 1963 at the Suzuka circuit. The three circuits that have hosted Grand Prix events in Japan (together with number of GP events held) are: Suzuka (19 times), Motegi (15) and Fisco (2)
32 – Jorge Lorenzo’s victory in Aragon signalled the 32nd time that he had stood on the top step of the podium in the MotoGP class: one more premier-class GP win than four-time 500cc World Champion Eddie Lawson. Only five riders have taken more premier-class GP wins than Lorenzo: Valentino Rossi (81 wins), Giacomo Agostini (68), Mick Doohan (54), Casey Stoner (38) and Mike Hailwood (37)
14 – Maverick Viñales, who is still only 19 years old, took the 14th victory of his Grand Prix career in Valencia. This is the same number of victories that Marco Melandri achieved whilst still a teenager. Only four riders have scored more than 14 GP wins before reaching the age of 20: Marc Marquez (26 wins whilst still a teenager), Dani Pedrosa (21), Valentino Rossi (17) and Jorge Lorenzo (15)
11 – Wild-card rider Hiroki Ono finished 11th in the Moto3™ race in Aragon, which is the best result by a Japanese rider in the lightweight-class of Grand Prix racing since Ono himself finished eighth as a wild-card at the Spanish GP in 2011
10 – On the first day of practice in Japan, it will be exactly ten years to the day since Casey Stoner gave KTM their first ever Grand Prix victory when he won the 125cc race at the Malaysian Grand Prix in 2004
4 – The last four MotoGP races have been won by four different riders: Dani Pedrosa, Marc Marquez, Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo. The last time that four different riders won four successive MotoGP races was across the final two races of 2012 and the first two races of 2013: Casey Stoner, Dani Pedrosa, Jorge Lorenzo and Marc Marquez
2 – Marc Marquez has failed to reach the podium at the last two MotoGP races. This is the first time since he moved up to the MotoGP class at the start of 2013 that he has failed to finish on the rostrum at two successive races
2nd – Aleix Espargaro’s second place finish in Aragon was the first podium result for a rider not on a factory-supplied or satellite bike from Ducati, Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki or Yamaha since Kenny Roberts finished third in Portugal in 2006 on the KR211V machine
0.057 seconds – The gap between Moto3 race winner Romano Fenati and second place finisher Alex Marquez at the Aragon Grand Prix – the eighth time this year that a lightweight-class race has been decided by less than one tenth of a second
0 – The MotoGP podium at Aragon was the first not to feature a Repsol Honda rider since the San Marino GP at Misano in 2012, when the only Honda rider to finish in the top three was Alvaro Bautista. The last MotoGP podium without a Honda rider from any team was the final race of 2010 in Valencia when the top three finishers were: Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha), Casey Stoner (Ducati) and Valentino Rossi (Yamaha)
0 – No Honda rider has ever clinched a world title in any of the three Grand Prix classes at the Motegi circuit
Moto2 stats and trivia
Tito Rabat continues to lead the World Championship, having extended his lead over team-mate Mika Kallio from 22 to 33 points after finishing second in Aragon; the Spaniard has finished on the Motegi podium once, when he was third in 2012
Mika Kallio remains second overall as he continues to chase his first world title; he won the Japanese Grand Prix on three consecutive occasions between 2005 and 2007, with the first two wins coming in the 125cc class and the third in the 250cc ranks
Fresh from his Aragon Grand Prix win, his second race victory in Moto2, Maverick Viñales remains third overall and is the only rider other than Rabat or Kallio who still holds a mathematical chance of claiming the 2014 intermediate class crown
Last year in Japan, Mika Kallio claimed his first pole position in the country before Pol Espargaro went on to win the race; this made the Spaniard Moto2 World Champion of 2013, with both Scott Redding and Tito Rabat having been removed from the action in a multiple collision on the opening lap of the race
In all four of the Japanese Moto2 Grands Prix to have been staged so far between 2010 and 2013, the pole-sitter has always finished the race in second position
Until last year, the winner has always started no lower than fourth on the grid; however, in 2013 Pol Espargaro came through from seventh place at the start
The only rider on the current Moto2 grid to have previously won a World Championship round at Motegi is Johann Zarco, who clinched his only victory to date in the 125cc Japanese Grand Prix of 2011
Azlan Shah celebrated his 30th birthday on the Wednesday after Aragon
Alex Mariñelarena, who has missed the season following a heavy crash at Paul Ricard during a pre-season test, turned 22 on the Sunday before the Japanese Grand Prix
Moto3 stats and trivia
Alex Marquez arrives in Japan as leader of the standings; this marks the first time ever that the younger brother of MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez has led the standings in a World Championship class
Jack Miller sits second in the championship, marking the first time since the season began that the Australian has not led it; he is 11 points behind new leader Marquez, with Race Direction having declared after the Aragon Grand Prix that the collision between Marquez and Miller (resulting in the latter’s crash) was a racing incident
Third overall is Alex Rins, the reduced margin of 18 points behind the leader; Rins has never finished on the podium in Japan, but did claim pole position last year
In last year’s Japanese Moto3 Grand Prix, Alex Marquez narrowly beat Maverick Viñales to pick up his first ever Grand Prix victory; then championship leader Luis Salom crashed twice (the first incident caused by Isaac Viñales), while an unforced error from pole-sitter Rins resulted in him sliding out of action later in the race
Danny Kent won his first ever Grand Prix at Motegi, two years ago
Alessandro Tonucci’s only career podium finish to date came in Japan in 2012, when he finished third behind Danny Kent and Maverick Viñales; the Italian also posted the fastest race lap – a feat he would achieve again two races later in Australia
In both Moto3 Japanese Grands Prix to be staged so far, the championship leader heading into the event has been involved in a crash during the race; Sandro Cortese suffered contact with team-mate Danny Kent before going on to finish sixth in 2012, while Luis Salom suffered two crashes last year (the first caused by Isaac Viñales, which led to the second when Salom lost control while nursing a damaged bike)
