STATS GUIDE: will Kawasaki make it 500 podiums or will Ducati dominate at home?
Whilst Kawasaki and Ducati look set to battle, Misano was also the scene of Toprak Razgatlioglu’s first win of 2021…
The 2022 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship heads to the Misano World Circuit “Marco Simoncelli” for the fourth round of a titanic title tussle, with the Pirelli Emilia-Romagna Round not ready to be an exception. With Kawasaki looking at 500 podiums in their WorldSBK history and Ducati aiming to continue their Misano magic, the stats pack is brimming ahead of the weekend.
500/497 – Kawasaki needs just three podiums to hit the milestone of 500. The record belongs to Ducati at 993, the only manufacturer to have surpassed 500. Ducati’s 500th podium placement was the second spot by James Toseland in Silverstone 2003 Race 1, a race whose podium was eventually locked by Ducati with Hodgson winning and Xaus in third.
345 – With every race so far this season having three different manufacturers on the podium, the total number of times this has happened in WorldSBK is now 343. 345 lies ahead at Misano.
99/100 – Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) is on 99 front rows in Superpole. This would’ve already hit 100 but for his penalty at Assen, 2017, which demoted him from pole to fourth.
84 – 84 podium placements of Ducati riders at Misano are an all-time record. The next highest is from Assen, as the Italian manufacturer have 81 there.
58 – Misano has hosted 58 WorldSBK races so far, third overall with Donington. Only Assen (62) and Phillip Island (61) have hosted more races.
32 – This is the track in which a single manufacturer has won the highest number of races: Ducati won here 32 times. Next up is also Ducati, with 28 wins in Assen and 27 in Phillip Island. The best value for another team is 19 by Kawasaki at Donington Park.
20-22 – Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) has scored 20 wins for Ducati, 2 shy of Carlos Checa, 6th in the Ducati rankings. The record belongs to Carl Fogarty at 55.
13 – Thirteen years ago, Jonathan Rea got his maiden WorldSBK win at Misano.
12 – Ruben Xaus is the only rider who won here starting outside the top ten on the grid. In 2003, he recorded the double starting twice from 12th on the grid for the factory Ducati team.
12x12 – Bautista climbed on the podium in all the first 9 races this season. He is out at Misano to extend his streak to 12, which will be just three short of his best one set in the first 15 races of 2019. It’s still a long way for the best streaks at the beginning of a season, set by Jonathan Rea: 20 in 2015, 17 in 2016.
9 – Yamaha took a ninth consecutive front row with Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) in second at Estoril. They are now just one away from equalling their all-time record streak of 10, set on two occasions: from 2007 to the start of 2008 with Troy Corser and Noriyuki Haga and in 2009, only by Ben Spies.
8 – In 2019, Rea became the most successful rider at Misano, with eight wins. Bayliss is next on 6.
3 – There are only three riders in history with two-digit podium figures at Misano: Troy Corser (16), Jonathan Rea (15), Troy Bayliss (11).
1 – There’s only one rider in the current field who has qualified on pole at Misano: Jonathan Rea (2019 and 2021).
SHORT-HAND NOTEBOOK
2021 winners:
Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Race 1 and Tissot Superpole Race)
Toprak Razgatlioglu (Race 2)
Last three pole-sitters:
2021: Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki) 1’33.416
2019: Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki) 1’34.596
2018: Tom Sykes (Kawasaki) 1’33.640
Manufacturer podium places accumulated from all races at Misano:
Ducati: 84
Kawasaki: 33
Honda: 17
Yamaha: 14
Aprilia: 14
Suzuki: 8
BMW: 3
Petronas: 1
Key gaps from Misano 2021:
Front row covered by: 0.118s
1 second in Superpole covered… the top nine: 0.801s
Closest race gap between 1st and 2nd: 0.485s (Rinaldi 1st, Razgatlioglu 2nd, Tissot Superpole Race)
Closest race podium: 1.865s (Rinaldi 1st, Razgatlioglu 2nd, Rea 3rd, Tissot Superpole Race)
Closest ever race podium: 2009 Race 2, 0.457s (Rea 1st, Fabrizio 2nd and Haga 3rd)
Manufacturer top speeds at Misano, 2021:
Ducati: Scott Redding – 278.3 km/h, Warm-Up
Kawasaki: Jonathan Rea and Alex Lowes– 273.4 km/h, FP1, Warm-Up and Tissot Superpole Race
Yamaha: Toprak Razgatlioglu – 272.7 km/h, FP1
Honda: Alvaro Bautista – 276.9 km/h, Race 1
BMW: Michael van der Mark – 274.1 km/h, Race 1 and Tissot Superpole Race
