STATS ROUND-UP: just how telling was Bautista’s home hat-trick?
Bautista triple sees him elevate himself, his country and manufacturer in terms of stats, whilst others were setting their own history
The 2022 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship’s eighth round of the season has come to a close but there was plenty of history made throughout the Catalunya Round. The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya saw a pivotal chapter of the title battle unfold, whilst there were rostrum returns and round milestones – here’s the post-round stats from Barcelona.
225 – After Tissot Superpole on Saturday, Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) and teammate Jonathan Rea represented Kawasaki on their 225th front row in WorldSBK after Superpole.
135 – With Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) winning and teammate Michael Ruben Rinaldi in second, it is the 135th time that Ducati achieve a 1-2 in WorldSBK.
69 – With pole on Saturday, Iker Lecuona (Team HRC) became the 69th polesitter in WorldSBK and the 153rd different rider to achieve a front row.
64 – Following Bautista’s triple, Spain is now two wins clear of Japan in the win tallies: 64 vs 62.
49 – So far in 2022, Alvaro Bautista is managing to average more points per round than Razgatlioglu did in 2021 and Rea did in 2020. Bautista averages 49.25, Razgatlioglu managed 43.38 and Rea 45.
48 – Bautista is now just one podium behind Carlos Checa in the podium rankings: 48 vs 49.
47 – Ending Honda’s six-year wait for a pole position, Iker Lecuona (Team HRC) have Honda their 47th pole position in WorldSBK, the first since Michael van der Mark’s only career pole, from Buriram 2016. It was their 201st front row, the first since Leon Haslam at Portimao in 2021. It was only Honda’s second pole in Spain, after John Kocinski in 1997 at Albacete.
27/10 – Bautista’s 27th win, one more than Razgatlioglu and tenth in the all-time standings; in terms of Ducati wins, he’s now one behind Chaz Davies. Of those 27 wins, ten have been achieved on home soil.
17/13 – After leading a lap in 17 consecutive races and starting on the front row after Superpole in the last 13 rounds, Toprak Razgatlioglu’s streaks came to an end in Barcelona, not leading a single lap of any race, whilst qualifying down in eighth place. It’s the first time since Donington Park in 2021 that he failed to start a single race from the front row.
17 – Finishing first and second, Bautista and Rea match the same tally as Carl Fogarty and Aaron Slight finishing first and second: 17.
14 – Rinaldi’s podium is his 14th, the same as fellow Italian Davide Giugliano.
12 – Dominique Aegerter’s (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha) double saw him take a 12th win of the season, the joint-record for most wins in a season with Andrea Locatelli’s 12 in 2020.
10 – For the first time since Jerez in 2021, there were no BMW riders inside the top ten after Superpole.
6 – With his Race 1 podium, Garrett Gerloff (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) took his sixth WorldSBK podium, levelling with Michael Dowson, Andrew Pitt, Alex Barros, Ryuichi Kiyonari and Xavi Fores. His next target will be to get to the seven of Kevin Magee, Mauro Lucchiari and Lorenzo Lanzi.
6 – In WorldSSP300, Victor Steeman (MTM Kawasaki) took a sixth pole of 2022, a new outright record for the class, one clear of Mika Perez.
5 – Bautista was the first rider to lead all laps of a race starting from fifth or lower on the grid since Jonathan Rea at Jerez in 2017, Race 2 – Rea was ninth on the grid that day.
3 – Alvaro Bautista, for the first time in three years, completed his first triple. The last one came at MotorLand Aragon in 2019; with three wins in Barcelona, he’s the most successful rider in WorldSBK at the circuit.
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