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Portimao – post-race statistics

Tuesday, 11 June 2013 12:54 GMT
Portimao – post-race statistics
WorldSBK.com takes a look at some facts and figures that emerged from the sixth round of the eni FIM Superbike World Championship at Portimao.


Sylvain Guintoli keeps on impressing with his steady pace: nineteen straight races in the points, in 2013 he didn't finish worse than sixth (Assen race two) and climbed on the podium nine times, more than anyone in this first part of the season. He is leading the championship even if, among the first five riders of the chart, he is the one with less wins, only one, to Laverty's four, Sykes' three and the two posted by Davies and Melandri.


The fall in race two put an end to a streak of eight races in the podium for Tom Sykes, his best one. Also Kawasaki stopped its string at eight. Only twice in history they were able to do better: in 1993, when they recorded one of thirteen (since Anderstorp race two to Estoril race two) and in 1991-1992, with nine from Phillip Island 1991 race one to Spa 1992 race one.


With the points scored in third in race one, Tom Sykes became the 25th rider in history to have scored at least 1000 points: his total now is 1000.5.


Eugene Laverty posted his seventh win, reaching Ben Bostrom at the 28th all-time place. Curiously these two riders have their wins unbalanced, with a higher percentage of wins in the second races. Laverty won only once in race one and six times in race two, while Ben Bostrom won twice in race one and five times in race two.


In race one Marco Melandri scored his twelfth win: that's exactly a half of the most successful rider among the active ones, Carlos Checa. Once more, and that makes it seven times in a row, Marco won without starting from the front row of the grid. For BMW it's the tenth win, only one shy of Bimota.


Best season result for Leon Camier, fourth in race one. In the last two seasons he finished higher only at the Nurburgring in the second race held last year, when he scored the last Suzuki podium to date (third).


Qualifying


Tom Sykes scored his sixteenth pole, equalling Neil Hodgson at the fifth all-time place. Tom at the moment counts a streak of five poles: it's the thrid all-time sequence, the same recorded by Carl Fogarty from Brno to Assen in 1993. In front of him only the record string of Ben Spies of seven poles (Phillip Island-Miller 2009) and the one of six by Doug Polen (Zeltweg-Hockenheim 1991). All by himself, Sykes was able to record the best string in Kawasaki history, that up to now had never started five times straight from pole.


The gap between the poleman Sykes and the second in grid, Eugene Laverty, 0.001 seconds, is the smallest in Superbike history and was recorded only once, in Kyalami in 2009, between Ben Spies and Michel Fabrizio. That pole by Spies in Kyalami was the sixth of the aforementioned all-time string.


Eugene Laverty scored his 20th front row start, the tenth straight: in Superbike history there were only eleven longer strings, and the record belongs to Scott Russell, with seventeen (Brands Hatch 1993-Albacete 1994). Eugene's performances allowed Aprilia to become the sixth team in history to record a sequence of at least ten front row starts after Ducati, Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Yamaha. The absolute record belongs to Ducati, with 71 straight front row starts from the 1991 Brainerd race to the 1996 Phillip Island one.


Also Jonathan Rea recorded his 20th front row start: together with Laverty, they reached in the all-time rankings Michel Fabrizio (at the 21st spot), which in 2013 started from the front row only in Phillip Island.