News

Nurburgring – the pre-round statistics

Thursday, 29 August 2013 08:16 GMT
Nurburgring – the pre-round statistics

WorldSBK.com takes a look at at the stats, facts and figures ahead of the tenth round of the eni FIM Superbike World Championship at the Nurburgring.


Sylvain Guintoli always finished in the top-10 all the six races run here. For him, two key moments: a fourth in grid in 2010, his maiden career front-row start, and the second place in race two in 2011, at the time his best career result.


The Nurburgring was the stage of Tom Sykes' maiden WSBK win, on the fourth of September, two years ago, in race two, which was stopped due to heavy rain after the leader, Noriyuki Haga, fell. Last year Tom was second in grid and able to lead the opening laps of both races, before slipping down the order with tyre wear problems, finishing fourth and fifth.


Four races at the Nurburgring, always among the first five under the flag, starting always from the front row: this is Eugene Laverty's remarkable scoreboard here. In 2011 he was second in grid, finishing fourth and fifth in the races, while last year he was fourth in grid and twice second, respectively behind Max Biaggi and Chaz Davies. He had to fight hard for those second places: in race one against Chaz Davies and in race two against Leon Camier, coming out on top in both cases.


A terrible weekend last year at the Nurburgring for Marco Melandri: for the first time in his career he entered a Superbike race as the Championship leader, but he fell twice in the races, in race one at the hairpin while running third, in race two while he was leading (and his title rival, Biaggi, was running last after an off-track excursion). Marco lost the Championship lead and was never able to snatch it back.


Chaz Davies scored here last year his maiden career win in race two, overtaking Sykes and pulling away on his own: in race one he was third after fighting with Laverty. Two years ago Chaz won the Supersport race ahead of James Ellison.


Jonathan Rea is the only one among the current riders who won twice at the Nurburgring: he managed to do it in race two in 2009 and in race one in 2010, when he was second in race two behind Noriyuki Haga. He adds to these podium finishes three fourth places, the last one in race two last year. Jonathan managed to start from the front row here only once, in 2009, in second.


Only one podium for Leon Camier at the Nurburgring, out of five races run: third in race two last year. That is, however, an outstanding achievement, as this was the only Suzuki podium of the entire season.


Last year Jules Cluzel started from pole the Supersport race, but he finished second to Kenan Sofuoglu for only 0.541 seconds.


Max Neukirchner was the poleman in his home race in 2008, when he finished twice third. He had less luck in 2010, when he fell in race one and was fifteenth in race two.


Four podiums out of ten races for Carlos Checa at the Nurburgring: winner from pole with the fastest race lap in 2011, race one, second in 2010, race one, and twice third in 2009 with Honda. Last year he was twelfth and sixth, but his result in race one came after he fell on the third lap while running fifth.


In eight races run here, Leon Haslam finished seven times between third and ninth: his results are dented only by a fall during last year's second race, when he was running seventh. His only Nurburgring podium came in 2010 in race two, when he was third behind Noriyuki Haga and Jonathan Rea.