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Tissot-Superpole – Tom Sykes (Race 1: 2nd)

36^th career pole for Tom Sykes, now 30 clear of his team-mate Jonathan Rea.

The 59^th pole for Kawasaki: now their distance from all-time leaders Ducati (159) is 100 pole positions.

This is the fifth straight pole in Misano for Sykes: he becomes the first rider in history with five consecutive poles at a given track. His five poles at Misano are surpassed only by the 6 on this same track by Troy Corser: they are the only riders with five or more poles at a given track.

With his 53^rd front row, Sykes reached Aaron Slight and Noriyuki Haga at the fourth all-time spot. The top3 is composed as follows: Troy Corser 99; Carl Fogarty 60, Troy Bayliss 54.

Sykes in climbed on the podium for the 75^th time in Race 1, joining double World Champion Colin Edwards in the 7^th all-time spot.

2nd – Jonathan Rea (Race 1: Winner)

38^th career front row start for Jonathan Rea: he joined Neil Hodgson in the 9^th all-time spot.

In Race 1 Jonathan Rea recorded his 15^th straight podium (he has been on the podium every race this season), his career 80th: a further podium in Race 2 will make him reach the third all-time streak of races on the podium (16), recorded by Troy Corser in 2005 from Losail/1 to Brands Hatch/2. The first two all-time streaks belong to Colin Edwards (25) and Rea himself (21).

In the 41 races held since the beginning of last season, only three didn’t feature Jonathan on the podium: the two at Jerez last year (twice fourth, clinching his first Championship in the first one) and the second Losail one (DNF).

By winning in Race 1, Rea put an end to his longest winless streak since he joined Kawasaki: 6 races.

Rea won in Race 1 by leading all the laps for the eleventh time in his career, the first time since last year in Imola (Race 2).

With a points advantage of 61, Rea in two-races time is set to equal the longest stint at the top of the championship: 41 races, set by Troy Bayliss from Monza/1 2001 to Assen/1 2002. Currently Rea has been at the top of the standings for 39 races, 41 if we consider his joint-lead with Haslam after the second race in Australia last year.

If Rea wins Race 2, his number of wins will equal Sykes’ number of poles: 36.

3rd – Xavi Fores (Race 1: DNF)

Xavi Fores was back on the front row after the 2015 Losail weekend: he is the ninth different rider to claim a front row grid spot this year.

4th – Alex Lowes (Race 1: 13th)

For the first time in his career Alex Lowes was able to start from the top4 in back-to-back qualifying rounds (he was second in Sepang, and withdrew before qualifying in Donington).

Other notes

• In Race 1 Kawasaki recorded their sixth double of the season, the second consecutive after the second Donington Race: this was the fourth Kawasaki double in the last five races held at Misano. They missed out only last year in Race 2, when Rea nevertheless won and Sykes was fifth after leading the opening laps.
• Kawasaki is only one double shy of their 2015 tally (7).
• Kawasaki has been on the podium in the last 19 races. They recorded only one longer streak in their history: 23 from Losail 2014/1 to Jerez 2015/1.
• After the first Misano Race, Sykes and Rea have now scored 50 of 87 Kawasaki wins (30 Sykes, 20 Rea).
• Michael Van der Mark is the first rider other than Jonathan Rea to take a Honda on the Misano podium since Alex Barros ten years ago (2nd in Race 2). Rea, with Honda, won the second 2009 Race here and was second in the 2012 second one. This was Honda’s 333^rd race on the podium (389 total podium placements).
• With Torres in fifth and Reiterberger in sixth, BMW recorded their best result at Misano since 2012 Race 2, when they locked out the places from third to sixth.