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Aragon – The post-race statistics

Monday, 21 April 2014 09:59 GMT

Some interesting facts and figures from the Aragon Round.

Kawasaki dominated the Aragon round, posting their first double in back-to-back races with Sykes winning and Loris Baz in second in both races. This was the fourth and fifth time Kawasaki recorded a double, the first one since the second race in Donington, 1993, when Scott Russell won and Aaron Slight was second: they both were running for the Kawasaki Muzzy team, fielding the ZXRs 750. The last team to record a double in both races had been Aprilia last year in Phillip Island with Sylvain Guintoli and Eugene Laverty.

In both races Tom Sykes won leading from lights to flag: he was able to do this in twelve of his sixteen wins. Since lap data is available (1998) no one else was able to record so many wins leading all the way: Sykes' best rival is Troy Corser, with ten wins leading all laps.

Tom Sykes after Aragon counts sixteen wins: the same of Giancarlo Falappa, Neil Hodgson and James Toseland, at the eleventh all-time spot.
For the first time in his career, Loris Baz nailed three consecutive podiums, as he always finished second in his last three races.

Jonathan Rea scored his 34th podium, the first since last year's first race in Silverstone, when he won. This was his first podium in Aragon: in his career he climbed on the podium in twelve different tracks. This was also the first podium placement for Honda in Aragon.

In race two Marco Melandri scored his 40th podium, reaching Doug Polen at the fifteenth all-time spot.

A complete sweep (pole, double win, double fastest lap, all the laps in the lead) by Kawasaki was prevented only by Chaz Davies, which recorded his fifth career fastest lap in race two.

In race one there were no Aprilias on the podium for the first time after eleven straight races (the sequence had started at the second Nurburgring race, last year).

After eight races in Aragon, there are only four winners: Max Biaggi, Marco Melandri, Chaz Davies and Tom Sykes, with two wins each. Therefore only Italian (2011 and 2012) and British (2013 and 2014) riders won here.

QUALIFYING

Tom Sykes recorded his 20th pole, and now he is only one pole shy of the third all-time spot, held by Carl Fogarty (21).

Best career result and first front row appearance for Loris Baz in second: at 21 years, 2 months and 12 days he became the sixth youngest rider in history to start from the front row. The record is held by Yuichi Takeda, who was only 18 years old when he dominated the first 1996 race in Sugo.

Loris Baz was the first Kawasaki rider other than Tom Sykes to start from the front row since 2007, when Regis Laconi managed two front-row starts and Fonsi Nieto one.

Taking the first and second place in grid was a major achievement for Kawasaki, which didn't record a similar feat since the 2007 Lausitzring race, when Fonsi Nieto and Regis Laconi took the first two grid spots, albeit on a wet qualifying session. To find another 1-2 in grid for Kawasaki we have to go back to Hockenheim 1997, when Simon Crafar scored pole and Akira Yanagawa was second.

For Jonathan Rea this was the 30th straight qualifying session in the top-10: the last time he missed out was in Misano, 2011. In Aragon Jonathan raced for the 120th time with Honda: he is the third rider with most presences for the Japanese manufacturer, behind Aaron Slight (163) and Colin Edwards (127).