MotoGP Mugello Sunday Guide – Gran Premio d’Italia TIM – Official statistics compiled by Dr. Martin Raines
• Marc Marquez maintains his 100% record of starting from pole in 2014. If he wins the race he would become the first rider since Valentino Rossi in 2002 to win six or more successive MotoGP races.
• Andrea Iannone is in second place on the grid, a great improvement on his previous best qualifying result in the MotoGP class which was eighth on the grid at Catalunya last year and in Argentina earlier this year. This is the best qualifying result by a Ducati rider since Casey Stoner was on pole in Valencia in 2010, and it is the best ever qualifying result for a satellite Ducati rider. It is also the best qualifying result for an Italian rider in the MotoGP class at Mugello since Rossi was on pole in 2008.
• Jorge Lorenzo, who has won at Mugello for the last three years, is starting from the front row of the grid for the third time in 2014.
• Heading the second row of the grid is Dani Pedrosa, who has finished second at Mugello for the last two years.
• Despite crashing during qualifying, Pol Espargaro will start from fifth place on the grid and will be aiming to back up his great result of two weeks ago when he finished fourth at Le Mans.
• Cal Crutchlow is in the final place on the second row, which is his best qualifying result so far in 2014.
• Bradley Smith is starting from the seventh place on the grid, with a lap time just 0.411 seconds slower than pole position.
• Andrea Dovizioso, who starts from eighth place on the grid, finished fifth last year at Mugello, which was his best dry weather result of 2013.
• Taking the last place on the third row is Stefan Bradl, who has finished fourth at Mugello for the last two years.
• Valentino Rossi, who is making his 300th grand prix start, is in tenth place on the grid, which equals his worst qualifying of 2014 which he had at Qatar when he went on to finish the race in second place.
Moto2
• Tito Rabat starts from pole for the fourth time this year. This is the sixth pole of his Moto2 career and from his previous five pole position starts he has taken four wins and a second place.
• In second place on the grid is Sam Lowes in his sixth grand prix start. Lowes is just the third British rider to have started on the front row in the Moto2 class, along with Bradley Smith and Scott Redding.
• Sandro Cortese, who starts from the front row for the third time in 2014, will be aiming to improve on his best result since moving up to the Moto2 class which is seventh at the opening race of the year in Qatar.
• Jonas Folger heads the second row of the grid, which makes it two German riders in the top four places of the grid for a Moto2/250cc grand prix for the first time since the Australian 250cc GP in 1996 at Eastern Creek when Jurgen Fuchs was in 3rd place on the grid and Ralf Waldmann was 4th.
• Dominique Aegerter is the highest placed Suter rider in qualifying, in fifth place on the grid.
• Winner of the Moto3 race at Mugello last year, Luis Salom, is in sixth place on the grid.
Moto3
• Alex Rins is on pole for the first time since the opening race of the year in Qatar. He will be aiming to win for the first time since the Australian Grand Prix last year.
• Jack Miller has qualified in second place on the grid to maintain his record of starting from the front row at every race so far in 2014 having never previously been on the front row prior to this year.
• Jakub Kornfeil is in third place on the grid – his first front row start in what will be his 79th grand prix. This is the best qualifying result in any class of GP racing for a Czech rider since Lukas Pesek was in third place on the grid for the 125cc race at Phillip Island in 2007.
• Romano Fenati heads the second row of the grid, which is his best qualifying result since he was in fourth place on the grid at Aragon in 2012.
• Alexis Masbou, who starts from fifth place on the grid, will be aiming to improve on his previous best result at Mugello which is 12th that he has achieved on three occasions.
• Alex Marquez, who takes the final place on the second row, finished fifth last year at Mugello but was just 0.819 seconds behind race winner Luis Salom.
• Karel Hanika heads the third row of the grid – his best qualifying result so far in his debut season in grand prix racing. This is the first time that two Czech riders have qualified in the top seven places on the grid for a grand prix race since full records began in 1974.
• Juanfran Guevara is in eighth place on the grid, which is his best qualifying result in grand prix racing.
