Italian Round - Statistics
WorldSBK.com provides a quick round-up of the facts and figures from the second round of the 2012 eni FIM Superbike World Championship at the Autodromo Enzo & Dino Ferrari circuit in Imola.
• Carlos Checa repeated his 2010 weekend, scoring his second double in Imola, and taking his tally of wins on the Santerno track to five. Two milestones for him: 23 wins, the same number as 1990 world champion Raymond Roche, in an all-time seventh place. Thanks to his fastest lap in race one, he reached 25 fastest laps, reaching Roche in this chart as well;
• Spain benefits from Checa's wins: now there have been 35 Spanish wins in World Superbike, the same number as France: the last win by a French rider dates back to 2005, Misano (Regis Laconi). Spain reached also 100 Superbike podiums: the chart is led by Great Britain, with 336 podiums;
• Two second places for Tom Sykes: the Briton was the only one able to ever classify a Kawasaki fourth or better in Imola (he also counts two fourths in 2010 and 2011). He is at his third straight podium: in his 81 previous starts he had never been able to score back-to-back podium finishes;
• Kawasaki in recent times were able to score two wins in the wet at the Nurburgring last year and in Assen in 2006, but to find the last race when they were able to put the same rider on the podium twice, we have to go back to Monza 2001, when Akira Yanagawa scored a couple of thirds;
• Leon Haslam hadn't been able to score a double podium since the Kyalami 2010 races: on that weekend the Briton posted his last win to date, in race two. Haslam now counts 25 podium finishes, one more than two-times champion Fred Merkel;
• For the first time in their history, BMW were able to finish on the podium in both races. They already have three podiums this season, the same amount they scored in the whole 2011 championship.
• Fourth career pole for Tom Sykes, the second straight after Phillip Island. Tom started from pole here also two years ago and he is the only one to have scored more than one pole in Imola;
• An important pole for Kawasaki, which hadn't recorded more than one season pole since 1997, when they posted three and hadn't recorded two back-to-back poles since 1994, when Scott Russell was able to start from this spot in the first three races: Donington, Hockenheim and Misano;
• Sylvain Guintoli equalled his best career result, second, scored in Magny-Cours two years ago;
• Leon Haslam was able to start from the front row after a gap that started in Donington last year.
Compiled by Michele Merlino
