News

1^st in the Championship: Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team)
Jonathan Rea gave Great Britain their 200th win in WorldSBK history: the first country to reach this goal. Back in 2009 at the Nurburgring, Rea also took the 100th win for the U.K.
It’s Rea’s fifth straight win since the beginning of the season: In Race 2 Rea can equal the second longest string of wins in a Championship start, set by Troy Bayliss in 2002(6). The all-time record was set by Neil Hodgson in 2003: 9 straight wins at the beginning of the year.
This was the first time Rea nailed five straight wins in his career.
43rd career win: Rea has equalled Noriyuki Haga’s all time record, which put them 3rd overall. The second spot is occupied by Troy Bayliss at 52.
In qualifying, Rea recorded his 6th straight front row: his career’s best sequence. This was his first front row at this track.
Five podiums out of 5 races with Kawasaki in Aragon. His next podium will bring him level with Troy Bayliss (94 podiums) at the 4th all-time spot.
In Race 1 he recorded his 10th straight podium, becoming the only WorldSBK rider with three  strings of 10 or more podium finishes. (21 from Losail 2014/2 to Sepang 2015/2 and 17 from Phillip Island 2016/1 to Laguna Seca 2016/1).
5 races into the season and Jonathan Rea is the only rider who always climbed on the podium.

2^nd in the Championship: Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team)
Tom Sykes claimed his 60^th row in qualifying, going level with Carl Fogarty at the 2nd all-time spot.  He now needs 39 more front rows in qualifying to reach the all-time leader, Troy Corser (99). In Race 1 Sykes claimed his 88th podium: he is sixth in the all-time rankings behind his team-mate Rea (93) and moved ahead of Aaron Slight in seventh place with 87. This year Tom Sykes has always finished the first races in third place. For the fourth time out of 13 races, he was third in Aragon. He claimed the 2nd spot in the Championship for the first time since last year’s season finale in Qatar: in that weekend the standings were the same: Rea/Sykes/Davies. For the first time in seven qualifying rounds here, he was out qualified by his team-mate. After the first Aragon Race, Great Britain has scored 553 podium finishes  in WorldSBK history, Italy 353.

3^rd in the championship: Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati)
In qualifying, Chaz Davies recorded his fourth career pole, meaning he has now started from pole at least once in each of the last three seasons. Davies crashed out while leading for the first time since Donington Race one last year. He didn’t convert a pole to a win in a dry race for the first time; he has managed to do it five times out of five previously - he was sixth from pole in the wet at the Lausitzring last year. For the 6th time out of 11 Davies led the Aragon race:  in his previous five he has come out as the winner.  He put an end to a string of 13 races in the points, and the only year he hasn’t climbed onto the podium around MotorLand Aragon was 2014.

4^th in the championship: Marco Melandri (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati)
In Race 1 Marco Melandri recorded his best result since his comeback to racing (2nd). This was his seventh podium at MotorLand Aragon which is the same number as Davies and Sykes, the record number for this track. This is the first track in which Melandri has climbed on to the podium for a seventh time. Today’s result now means Melandri and Davies are tied for career podiums: 52 each. He moved up to fourth position in the Championship standings: the position in which he finished the 2014 season.

5^th in the championship: Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team)
For the fourth time out of five races this year Alex Lowes was fourth at the flag, but has always started from a different grid position.

8^th in the championship: Xavi Fores (BARNI Racing Team)
Xavi Fores recorded his best qualifying result since Laguna Seca last year, where he also started from fifth position.

14^th in the championship: Roman Ramos (Team Kawasaki Go Eleven)
Roman Ramos saw a string of 18 point scoring finishes come to an end in Race 1.

18^th in the championship: Leandro Mercado (IODARacing)
Thanks to the new regulations, Tati Mercado will start his 42^nd WorldSBK from fourth position for the first time.

Other notes:

Winners so far this season: Jonathan Rea  with 5.          

In Race 1, a British rider  won  for the  19th consecutive race;  this is the second longest run of consecutive race wins for British riders, after the 24 successive wins recorded between Phillip Island/1  and  Magny Cours/2 in 2015.