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Portuguese Round - statistics

Thursday, 20 October 2011 16:16 GMT
Portuguese Round - statistics

• Third career pole, second straight for Jonathan Rea. His maiden pole was in Assen last year and there he won both races. In his last two poles though, in Magny-Cours and Portimao, he wasn't able to win. With a couple of thirds in Portugal, Jonathan reached Akira Yanagawa, Chris Vermeulen and Leon Haslam at the 24th all-time spot for podium finishes;

• Carlos Checa finished the season with fifteen wins out of 26 races, the second all-time value for a single championship behind Doug Polen, seventeen in 1991. The Spaniard had an amazing season if we consider that in his three previous championships he was able to collect only one third of the wins he scored this year (5 out of 82 races);

• Checa is the third rider in history to score at least 500 points (505) in a single season. Before him only Colin Edwards (552) and Troy Bayliss (541) did so in 2002;

• Fourth win for Marco Melandri in race two, second in the championship and best rookie of the season in front of his team-mate Laverty. Marco finished the season with fifteen podium places (second all-time value for a rookie behind the seventeen scored by Biaggi and Spies) and with the peculiarity of having qualified always among the first nine;

• Ducati benefited greatly from Checa's performances, finishing the championship with almost three times the number of wins they recorded last year: fifteen to six;

• Third career podium for Sylvain Guintoli, who in race one also set his second fastest race lap after the one scored in Australia last year. Sylvain proved his consistency with 23 races in the points out of 26 starts this year. In the last two years the Frenchman has missed out on the points only four times (two crashes, one mechanical failure and one disqualification) out of 51 races run;

• Thanks to the podium placements of Rea and Laverty, Great Britain now is the country with the highest number of podium placements in Superbike: 331 to Australia's 329. The last podium by an Australian rider was recorded by Troy Corser in Misano last year;

• For the second time this year, Joan Lascorz equalled his best career result, fifth, scored in Donington and Motorland. The Spaniard rookie this year for fourteen times (more than one out of two races) was the best-classified Kawasaki rider in the races;

• Best career result for Maxime Berger, seventh in race one;

• Jakub Smrz managed to score points in both races: he hadn't been able to score a double points finish since Miller. Since then he has crashed seven times and recorded at least one retirement every race weekend;

• A similar situation for Michel Fabrizio, who scored his first double points finish since Brno. Michel however finished the season with his lowest championship spot, twelfth. He was eleventh in 2006 and 2007, his first two seasons in Superbike.