News

RIDERS

• Mark Aitchison ran twice at the Nurburgring in the Supersport championship, retiring in both cases. In the 2008 race he started with the fifth qualifying time;

• Ayrton Badovini comes back to the Nurburgring after last year's triumphant Superstock 1000 weekend in which he scored pole, win and fastest lap. In the 2008 Superbike races he was seventeenth in race one, while in race two he retired following a contact with Vittorio Iannuzzo;

• Maxime Berger ran three Superstock 1000 races here, finishing second twice, always behind the future series champion: in 2009 he was beaten by Xavier Simeon and last year by Ayrton Badovini;

• Max Biaggi started from pole last year, scoring a fourth and a fifth in the races, curiously the same results he obtained two years ago. Max has always scored points at the German track and counts only one finish outside the top-10, in race one, 2008 (13th), when his performances were dented by a fall in the morning warm-up;

• Not a good debut here last year for Leon Camier: he crashed, fracturing his right hand and wasn't able to continue his racing season;

• Carlos Checa has always scored good results at the Nurburgring: fifth in his first two races here in 2008, third in both races the following year, last year he recorded his best placement at this track finishing second in race one. In race two he slid off trying to follow race leader Haga;

• A respectable set of results for Troy Corser at the Nurburgring: a win in race two in 1999 in front of Aaron Slight and Akira Yanagawa, a second place in 2008 and two thirds (1998 and 1999). Troy has scored points here nine times out of ten, retiring only once, after a crash last year and only once has he finished outside the top 10, again last year in race two (12th). Troy at the moment can count 3996.5 points and could be the first rider to break the 4000 points mark;

• Michel Fabrizio was able to finish inside the top-10 in all his four races here in 2008 and 2009, before coming to a halt last year, when he crashed in race one and in race two he stopped in the pits for a vibration, rejoining the race after several minutes;

• Sylvain Guintoli last year started from the front row with the fourth time and finished eighth and sixth in the races;

• Three wins for Noriyuki Haga out of ten races run here: a double in 2008 and a win last year in race one. In the last three editions Noriyuki also scored a second in 2009, but he has missed out on a points finish only twice: due to a crash last year and a clash with Rea in 2009, race two. The Japanese rider has performed always at the highest level on German soil: he has been able to win at every German track in the WSBK calendar; at Hockenheim in 2000, then a win at Oschersleben in 2004, and another one at the Lausitzring in 2007. Haga and Corser are the only two riders who have competed in all the ten races held at the Nurburgring;

• Leon Haslam has always finished his four Nurburgring races in between third and sixth spot. His best result came in race two last year: third behind Jonathan Rea and Carlos Checa;

• Joan Lascorz raced twice in the Supersport championship at the Nurburgring, finishing third in the 2009 race behind Cal Crutchlow and Eugene Laverty;

• Excellent results for Eugene Laverty at the Nurburgring in the Supersport championsip: in 2009 he was second behind the future world champion Cal Crutchlow, while last year he won from Kenan Sofuoglu, scoring also pole, fastest lap and leading from lights to flag;

• It is the first time at this track for Marco Melandri: he has to learn it fast if he wants to maintain his podium streak because Marco has finished his last six races on the podium;

• Jonathan Rea has scored outstanding results at the Nurburgring: he won twice out of four races, finishing second and fourth in the others;

• Roberto Rolfo is looking for his first Nurburgring points after a sixteenth and a seventeenth in the 2008 event;

• Jakub Smrz is looking for his first top-10 finish at this track, both in qualifying and in the races: three times (once a year) he has finished eleventh in the races run at the Nurburgring;

• Tom Sykes has had good, constantly improving results at the Nurburgring finishing ninth and eighth in 2009 and fifth and seventh last year;

• At the start of race one James Toseland will celebrate his 200th Superbike race in the same country where he won his maiden race, Germany: back in 2003 James won race two at Oschersleben in front of the future world champion Neil Hodgson and Chris Walker. Last year at the Nurburgring he was able to score points with an eighth in race two after a crash in race one;

• Out of the top-10 when he raced here for the first time in 1998, Ruben Xaus recorded good results in his last four races here in 2008 and 2010, finishing always in the top-10 spots;

TEAMS

• Aprilia have never placed a bike on the podium so far at the Nurburgring, or at any other German track, despite having run sixteen races in Germany. Their best result is a fourth, obtained five times;

• BMW at their home track were able to put at least one bike in the top-10 in the races: their best result is a sixth, scored by Corser in race two, 2009;

• Ducati won four times at the Nurburgring, the first three between 1998 and 1999, then a wait until Haga's win last year in race two;

• Honda won both in 2009 and in 2010 here, thanks to Jonathan Rea;

• Kawasaki, thanks to Tom Sykes (fifth and seventh), last year were able to address their bad 2009 results, when they weren't able to finish inside the top-10. In 1999 they climbed on the podium here with Akira Yanagawa, third;

• Suzuki have never won at the Nurburgring: their best result is a third, scored by Max Neukirchner in both 2008 races and last year by Leon Haslam in race two;

• Yamaha won both races in 2008 with Haga and one race in 2009 with Ben Spies. Last year the winning streak stopped and Cal Crutchlow was the only Yamaha rider to climb on the podium with a third in race one.