Hertz British Grand Prix – Silverstone MotoGP – Official statistics compiled by Dr. Martin Raines
Motorcycle Grand Prix racing at Silverstone – This is the fifth year that Silverstone has hosted a Grand Prix since the motorcycle world championship racing returned to the circuit in 2010 after a gap of 23 years. The first motorcycle GP to be held at Silverstone was in 1977 and below are some facts and statistics from Grand Prix events held at the circuit:
- The Silverstone event in 1977 was the first motorcycle Grand Prix to be held on the British mainland, as prior to 1977 the British round of the World Championship had been held since 1949 on the 37.73 mile-long Isle of Man TT circuit. The move from the Isle of Man was made mainly for reasons of rider safety
- The winners at that first Grand Prix at Silverstone in 1977 were: 500cc – Pat Hennen (Suzuki), 350cc & 250cc – Kork Ballington (Yamaha), 125cc – Pierluigi Conforti (Morbidelli)
- The original circuit layout used for the Grand Prix between 1977 and 1986 was 2.93 miles-long (4.71 km) and the fastest lap at the circuit during this time was set by Kenny Roberts riding a Yamaha in 1983 at an average speed of 119.5 mph (192.2 km/h)
- The British Grand Prix was held for ten successive years at the Silverstone circuit, before the event moved to Donington Park in 1987. The British GP returned to Silverstone in 2010 with a revised circuit layout measuring 5.9 km
- Kork Ballington and Angel Nieto are the two riders with most GP victories at Silverstone, each having won there on six occasions
- The only rider who has had more than a single victory at Silverstone since GP racing returned to the circuit in 2010 is Jorge Lorenzo, who has won the MotoGP race there three times: 2010, 2012 and 2014
- 12 British riders have finished on the podium across all the solo classes of Grand Prix racing at Silverstone: John Williams (1977/350cc/3rd), Barry Sheene (1978/500cc/3rd, 1979/500cc/2nd), Tom Herron (1978/250cc/2nd, 1978/350cc/2nd), Steve Manship (1978/500cc/2nd), Mick Grant (1978/350cc/3rd), Clive Horton (1978/125cc/2nd), Keith Huewen (1981/350cc/2nd), Andy Watts (1984/250cc/2nd), Ron Haslam (1984/500cc/3rd), Ian McConnachie (1986/80cc/1st), Bradley Smith (2010/125cc/3rd, 2011/Moto2™/2nd) and Scott Redding (2012/Moto2/2nd, 2014/Moto2/1st)
- The only British rider to have started from pole at Silverstone, across all solo GP classes, is Barry Sheene – in the 500cc race in 1977
Valentino Rossi set to top the table
At the Silverstone Grand Prix Valentino Rossi is scheduled to make his 246th GP start in the MotoGP/500cc class, to take the outright record for most starts in the premier class of Grand Prix racing. The following list shows the ten riders with most Grand Prix starts in the premier class after the Czech Grand Prix.
- Alex Barros 245
- Valentino Rossi 245
- Loris Capirossi 217
- Colin Edwards 196
- Carlos Checa 194
- Nicky Hayden 193
- Kenny Roberts Jnr 167
- Sete Gibernau 160
- Jack Findlay 157
- Randy Mamola 145
Dani Pedrosa nearing half-century of GP victories
At the Czech GP, Dani Pedrosa stood on the top step of a Grand Prix podium for the 49th time. His next GP win will make him just the eighth rider in the history of motorcycle Grand Prix racing to reach the milestone of 50 GP victories, as shown in the table below:
Rider Total wins MotoGP/500cc | 350cc | 250cc | 125cc | 80/50cc
- Giacomo Agostini 122 Total | 68 x MotoGP/500cc | 54 x 350cc
- Valentino Rossi 106 Total | 80 x MotoGP/500cc | 14 x 250cc | 12 x 125cc
- Angel Nieto 90 Total | 62 x 125cc | 28 x 80/50cc
- Mike Hailwood 76 Total | 37 x MotoGP/500cc | 16 x 350cc | 21 x 250cc | 2 x 125cc
- Mick Doohan 54 Total | 54 x MotoGP/500cc
- 6= Jorge Lorenzo 52 Total | 31 x MotoGP/500cc | 17 x 250cc | 4 x 125cc
- 6= Phil Read 52 Total | 11 x MotoGP/500cc | 4 x 350cc | 27 x 250cc | 10 x 125cc
- Dani Pedrosa 49 Total | 26 x MotoGP/500cc | 15 x 250cc | 8 x 125cc
- 9= Jim Redman 45 Total | 2 x MotoGP/500cc | 21 x 350cc | 18 x 250cc | 4 x 125cc
- 9= Casey Stoner 45 Total | 38 x MotoGP/500cc | 5 x 250cc | 2 x 125cc
Kalex level with Suter
The win by Tito Rabat at the Czech Grand Prix was the 30th win for Kalex in the Moto2 class, the same number of wins that rival manufacturer Suter have taken in the class, as shown below:
- 30 – Suter & Kalex
- 8 – Moriwaki
- 6 – Speed Up
- 2 – Motobi and FTR
- 1 – Tech 3
Grand Prix starts to first win
Alexis Masbou took his maiden GP victory at Brno in what was his 133rd Grand Prix start, all of which have been in the Moto3™/125cc class. This is a record for the number of race starts in the lightweight class before achieving a maiden Grand Prix victory. The table below shows the five riders who have competed in the greatest number of Moto3/125cc
Rider – Moto3-125cc Debut / First Win / Number of Moto3-125cc start before achieving first win
- Alexis Masbou /Fra 2003 Le Mans Cze/2014 Brno / 133
- Sandro Cortese /Spa 2005 Jerez Cze/2011 Brno / 109
- Efren Vazquez /Qat 2008 Losail Inp/2014 Indy / 106 (plus 10 in 250cc class)
- Steve Jenkner /Mal 1997 Shah Alam Ned/2003 Assen / 98
- Pablo Nieto /Cat 1998 Catalunya Por/2003 Estoril / 75
Close Moto3 race at Brno sets new records
The Moto3 race at Brno featured 16 riders crossing the finish line within two seconds of race winner Alexis Masbou, re-writing the record books for the closest finish of all-time in the lightweight class of Grand Prix racing. Below are the new records set in the race at Brno, together with the previous best for the Moto3/125cc class (only races that have completed full race distance are considered for inclusion in the following table):
2014 Czech GP finish compared to Previous Record
- Time covering top six finishers 0.310 sec Czech GP – Previous Record was Italy/2014/Mugello – 0.359 sec
- Time covering top seven finishers 0.470 sec Czech GP – Previous Record was Italy/1999/Mugello – 0.589 sec
- Time covering top eight finishers 0.549 sec Czech GP – Previous Record was Catalunya/1998 – 1.027 sec
- Time covering top nine finishers 0.910 sec Czech GP – Previous Record was Catalunya/1998 – 1.062 sec
- Time covering top ten finishers 1.009 sec Czech GP – Previous Record was Italy/1999/Mugello – 1.338 sec
- Time covering top 11 finishers 1.042 sec Czech GP – Previous Record was Italy/1999/Mugello – 1.429 sec
- Time covering top 12 finishers 1.061 sec Czech GP – Previous Record was Catalunya/1998 – 2.063 sec
- Time covering top 13 finishers 1.191 sec Czech GP – Previous Record was Catalunya/1998 – 2.607 sec
- Time covering top 14 finishers 1.809 sec Czech GP – Previous Record was Catalunya/1998 – 3.046 sec
- Time covering top 15 finishers 1.838 sec Czech GP – Previous Record was Catalunya/1998 – 5.025 sec
- Time covering top 16 finishers 1.944 sec Czech GP – Previous Record was Italy/1999/Mugello – 10.695 sec
Grand Prix racing numbers
- 79 – Jorge Lorenzo’s second place finish at the Czech GP marked the 79th time that he had stood on the podium in the MotoGP class. This is one more podium finish in the premier class of GP racing than four-time 500cc World Champion Eddie Lawson. Only four riders have stood on the podium more often than Lorenzo in the premier class: Valentino Rossi (154 podium finishes), Mick Doohan (95), Dani Pedrosa (92) and Giacomo Agostini (88)
- 42 years – The third place by Danny Kent in the Moto3 race at the Czech GP is the first podium finish by Husqvarna since 1972, when Bo Granath scored the only two previous podiums for Husqvarna with third place finishes at the Austrian and Swedish 500cc races
- 23 – Marc Marquez has qualified on the front row at the last 23 MotoGP races. The last time he did not start from the front row was when he was sixth on the grid in Catalunya last year
- 17 years – On race day at Silverstone it will be exactly 17 years to the day since Valentino Rossi finished third in the 125cc race at the 1997 Czech Grand Prix at Brno to clinch his first World Championship title
- 14 years – The last British rider to finish on the podium in the premier class at the British Grand Prix was Jeremy McWilliams 14 years ago, finishing third in the 500cc race at Donington Park in 2000
- 12 years, 49 days – Dani Pedrosa’s victory at the Czech Grand Prix came 12 years and 49 days after he took his first GP win in the 125cc class at the Dutch TT in 2002. Only five riders have had longer winning careers in the history of motorcycle Grand Prix racing: Loris Capirossi, Valentino Rossi, Angel Nieto, Phil Read and Loris Reggiani
- 11 – Dani Pedrosa’s win in the 2014 Czech Grand Prix was the 11th successive MotoGP win for Honda. This is the longest sequence of successive wins by one manufacturer since the MotoGP class was introduced at the start of 2002. The last time that one manufacturer won 11 or more successive premier class GP races was when Honda won 13 successive races across the two seasons of 2001 and 2002; in that run, Honda riders won the last four 500cc GPs of 2001 followed by the first nine MotoGP races of 2002
- 8 years, 95 days – Dani Pedrosa’s victory at the Czech GP came 8 years and 95 days after he took his first win in the MotoGP class in China in 2006. Only six riders have had longer winning careers in the premier class in the history of motorcycle Grand Prix racing: Valentino Rossi, Alex Barros, Phil Read, Giacomo Agostini, Loris Capirossi and Eddie Lawson
- 6th place – Since the World Championship Grand Prix series returned to Silverstone in 2010, the best result for a British rider in the MotoGP class at their home Grand Prix is 6th place for Cal Crutchlow, riding for Monster Yamaha Tech 3 in 2012
- 5 – There are scheduled to be five British riders on the grid for the MotoGP race at Silverstone: Cal Crutchlow, Bradley Smith, Scott Redding, Michael Laverty and Leon Camier. The last time that there were five or more British riders starting the premier class race at a home GP was in 1996, when the following riders started the 500cc race at Donington: James Haydon, Chris Walker, Eugene McManus, Jeremy McWilliams & Terry Rymer. Sean Emmett was also down to ride in 1996 but he crashed in practice and didn’t make the start
- 2 – Just two British riders have won a solo Grand Prix race at Silverstone: Scott Redding won the Moto2 race last year and Ian McConnachie won in the 80cc class in 1986
Moto2 Stats and Trivia
- Last time out at Brno, the Marc VDS Racing Team finished achieved its second one-two finish of the season, as championship leader Tito Rabat led home team-mate Mika Kallio; this mirrored the result of the season-opening Qatar Grand Prix
- Third in the Czech Republic was Sandro Cortese, as the 2012 Moto3™ World Champion achieved his first podium since joining Moto2™ at the start of 2014
- In the first World Championship event for the tier that was then the 250cc class, at the Isle of Man TT in 1949, 29 riders started and 13 finished, with victory going to The Republic of Ireland’s Manliff Barrington on a Moto Guzzi
- The first 250cc British round of the World Championship on mainland Britain was that of 1977, when Yamaha riders locked out the podium at Silverstone: South Africa’s Kork Ballington led home Venezuela’s Aldo Nannini and France’s Eric Saul
- In last year’s Moto2™ race at Silverstone, Scott Redding clinched victory in front of his home crowd while World Champion-to-be Pol Espargaro struggled to eighth place
- Kalex has won three of the four Moto2™ races to have been staged at Silverstone since the category debuted in 2010: with Stefan Bradl in 2011, Pol Espargaro in 2012 and Scott Redding in 2014. The 2010 race was won by Jules Cluzel on a Suter
- Jules Cluzel’s 2010 victory at Silverstone marked the sole race win of his World Championship career, as the Frenchman edged out Tom Luthi by just 0.057 seconds
- Jordi Torres turned 27 on the Wednesday before the race
- Xavier Simeon celebrates his 25th birthday on race day
- Tom Luthi’s 28th birthday will come on the Saturday after the British GP
Moto3 Stats and Trivia
- Jack Miller heads to Silverstone with a 23-point advantage over Alex Marquez atop the championship standings; this is Miller’s second-largest lead of the season so far, as after the French Grand Prix he was ahead of Romano Fenati by 30 points
- Alexis Masbou clinched his maiden Grand Prix victory last time out at Brno in the Czech Republic, having debuted in the 125cc class at Le Mans in 2003. His best British Grand Prix result to date is fourth in Moto3 in 2012, as Maverick Viñales won from Luis Salom and Sandro Cortese
- Alex Rins lost a potential victory in the Czech Grand Prix as he celebrated one lap too soon; a similar occurrence took place in the lightweight class in 2009, when Julian Simon began celebrating at the end of the penultimate lap of the Catalan 125cc GP
- Since the World Championship returned to Silverstone in 2010, the team now known as Red Bull KTM Ajo has failed to win on only one occasion; it celebrated victory with Marc Marquez, Jonas Folger and Luis Salom in 2010, 2011 and 2014, respectively, but in 2012 the race was won by Maverick Viñales for Blusens Avintia
- No rider other than Maverick Viñales is yet to claim a Moto3™ pole position at Silverstone; this will change in 2014, as the title winner of last year has now stepped up to the intermediate class of the World Championship
- In the 125cc British Grand Prix of 2008, Scott Redding (then still a school pupil) became the youngest ever World Championship Grand Prix race winner at 15 years and 170 days of age. Redding still holds the record as youngest ever GP winner
- Efren Vazquez will celebrate his 28th birthday on the Tuesday after Silverstone
