News

Sunday Guide: Imola

Saturday, 30 April 2016 16:39 GMT

Some stats and facts about Saturday's fastest riders ahead of #ImolaWorldSBK Race 2

Tissot-Superpole – Chaz Davies (Race 1: Winner)

9 months and 11 days after his maiden pole at Laguna Seca, Chaz Davies was back at the top of the timing sheets, becoming the 12th different polesitter in 14 WorldSBK race weekends held at Imola.

Thanks to Chaz Davies, Ducati extends their unique record of having recorded at least one pole position in every year of the Championship, now in its 29th season.

By taking his 12th career win in Race 1, Davies conquered his 38th podium as well, getting on a  level with his compatriot Leon Haslam in the 21st spot on the all time list. Now he is one shy of the 20th spot, occupied by 1993 World Champion Scott Russell. A 13th win will take him into the top 20 in these standings as well, reaching Aaron Slight and Eugene Laverty.

Chaz Davies had never led a single lap at Imola before this year: he led from lights to flag in Race 1. So far this season he has led more than anyone else: 65 laps to Sykes’ 56 and Rea’s 44.

2nd – Davide Giugliano (Race 1: 5th)

Davide Giugliano recorded his 24th front row start, going level with Akira Yanagawa and Eugene Laverty at the 21st all-time spot. The last time Ducati had recorded a 1-2 on the grid was in Laguna Seca last year, with Davies and Giugliano in the same order. Davide is on his fourth straight front row start at Imola.

3rd – Jonathan Rea (Race 1: 2nd)

Championship leader Rea - for 33 races on the trot- equalled his best season qualifying result: he was third on the grid three times out of five this year. This was his 36th front row start, entering the all-time top 10 list, reaching Giancarlo Falappa.

In Race 1 Rea recorded his 74th podium and now he is only one shy of the 6th all-time spot, held by Colin Edwards: so far this year Rea has always climbed on the podium. In Race 2 he can thus extend his streak to 10 races: in his career he has managed only one longer sequence of races on the podium, the 21 he achieved from Losail 2014/2 to Sepang 2015/2.

  • A perfect score of 10 podiums in the first 10 races of the championship -something Rea can achieve in Race 2- has been achieved five times in the past, and every time the rider who recorded it became Champion at the end of the season. This is the list: Carl Fogarty in 1995 and 1999; Neil Hodgson in 2003 (9 wins); Troy Corser in 2005 and Jonathan Rea last year.
    Rea has finished his last six Imola races always first (4 times) or second (2).

4th – Tom Sykes (Race 1: 3rd)

For the first time this year Tom Sykes was left off the front row of the grid: only 3 thousandths of a second were the deficit to third-placed Jonathan Rea.

66 is not only Tom Sykes racing number, but after Imola is also the number of consecutive race weekends in which he has been able to start from the Top 10, his sequence starting back in 2011, at Miller. In these 66 races Sykes has recorded no less than 32 pole positions -nearly a half of them- and started from the front row 47 times (71%). The last WorldSBK weekend without Tom in the Top 10 grid spots was Monza 2011.

In Race 1 Sykes recorded his 70th career podium and is only one shy of the 8th all-time spot, occupied by Max Biaggi. Tom is the first rider to claim an eighth podium at Imola.

5th – Lorenzo Savadori (Race 1: 8th)

Best career result for Lorenzo Savadori in qualifying: 5th at his 5th WorldSBK weekend. For the first time this year Aprilia were able to secure a Top 5 grid spot.

Other notes

  • The UK locked out the podium for the 26th time in history in Race 1 and became the first country with more than 500 WorldSBK podiums: the total is now 502. The next win for the UN will be the 180th.
  • Best season result for Jordi Torres: 4th in Race 1.
  • The last six races held at Imola have been led by a single team each time. The string started in 2013 Race 2, when Sykes led all the way for Kawasaki; in 2014 Jonathan Rea led both races from lights to flag for Honda; last year the only leaders were the Kawasaki riders Rea and Sykes; Race 1 this year was led entirely by Chaz Davies on his Ducati.