Monthly Archives: August 2018

Czech GP 2018 – Fast Facts

  • Last year Marc Marquez won at Brno by a margin of 12.438 seconds from team-mate Dani Pedrosa. This is the largest margin of victory by Marquez in the MotoGP class.
  • At the Czech Grand Prix Marc Marquez is scheduled to make his 100th Grand Prix start in the MotoGP class. At the age of just 25 years and 169 days Marquez is the second youngest ever rider to reach the milestone of 100 starts in the premier-class. The only rider to reach this milestone at a younger age is John Hopkins who was 24 years 348 days old when he made his 100th premier-class start at the Chinese GP in 2008.
  • Pol Espargaro’s ninth place finish last year at Brno was the first top ten finish in the MotoGP class for KTM.
  • The two riders with most grand prix victories at the current Brno circuit, each with seven wins, are Max Biaggi (4 x 250cc, 2 x 500cc, 1 x MotoGP) and Valentino Rossi (1x 125cc, 1 x 250cc, 1 x 500cc, 4 x MotoGP).
  • Valentino Rossi is the only rider to win the MotoGP race at Brno in successive years – in 2008 and 2009.
  • The best result for a Czech rider in the MotoGP class at Brno is 9th for Karel Abraham in 2012 riding a Ducati.
  • When Valentino Rossi lines up on the grid at Brno it will be the 23rd successive year that he will have started in a grand prix race at Brno, and will be just the second circuit, along with Jerez, he will have raced in every year of his grand prix career. The other three circuits that have appeared on the grand prix schedule every year whilst Rossi has been racing (Mugello, Catalunya and Assen) were all circuits he did not start following his accident in practice for the Italian Grand Prix in 2010.
  • Cal Crutchlow’s win at Brno in 2016 was the first victory in the premier-class by a British rider for thirty-five years since Barry Sheene riding a Yamaha in the 500cc Swedish Grand Prix at Anderstorp on 16th August 1981.

 

By |2018-08-02T16:50:44+00:00August 2nd, 2018|Uncategorised|Comments Off on Czech GP 2018 – Fast Facts

Czech GP 2018 – Facts and Stats

  • This year’s Czech Grand Prix will be the 49th to be held at Brno.
  • The only venue that has hosted more grand prix events than Brno is Assen in The Netherlands, which has hosted the Dutch TT in each of the 70 years of the motorcycling world championship.
  • The first Czechoslovakian Grand Prix was held at Brno in 1965. The 500cc race, held over thirteen laps of the original 13.94 km long road circuit, was won by Mike Hailwood (MV Agusta) in a time of 1hr 11 min 23.2 sec.
  • The circuit was shortened to 10.92 km in 1975 in an effort to improve safety.
  • The last premier-class race held on the road circuit at Brno was in 1977 and was won by Johnny Cecotto riding a Yamaha. The circuit was subsequently considered too dangerous for the large capacity machines.
  • The smaller capacity machines continued to compete in grand prix races on the Brno road circuit until 1982 before it was removed from the grand prix calendar for safety reasons.
  • The current circuit was first used for grand prix racing in 1987 and hosted the Czechoslovakian GP through until 1991. Brno did not appear on the calendar for 1992, but the event was revived in 1993 as the Grand Prix of the Czech Republic and has taken place every year since.
  • This will be the 31st time that the current circuit has hosted a grand prix event, during which time the circuit has remained virtually unchanged; minor modifications were made to the circuit in 1996 which extended the length from 5.394 km to the current 5.403 km.
  • Since the introduction of the four-stroke MotoGP class in 2002 Honda have been the most successful manufacturer with eight victories, including the last two years with Cal Crutchlow in 2016 and Marc Marquez last year.
  • Yamaha have taken six MotoGP victories at Brno, but only one in the last seven years, which was with Jorge Lorenzo in 2015.
  • Ducati have twice won the MotoGP race at Brno, with Loris Capirossi in 2006 and Casey Stoner in 2007. The last podium for a Ducati rider at Brno was when Stoner finished third in 2010.
  • The last win for Suzuki at Brno was in the 500cc class in 1989 with Kevin Schwantz. Loris Capirossi was the last rider to finish on the podium at Brno riding a Suzuki – 3rd in 2008.
  • There has only been one podium finish by a Czech rider at the current Brno circuit across all classes – Lukas Pesek’s third place in the 125cc race in 2007 riding a Derbi.
  • The eight Moto2 races that have taken place at Brno have been won by eight different riders: 2010 – Toni Elias, 2011 – Andrea Iannone, 2012 – Marc Marquez, 2013 – Mika Kallio, 2014 – Tito Rabat, 2015 – Johann Zarco, 2016 – Jonas Folger, 2017 – Tom Luthi. None of these riders are now competing in the Moto2 class.
  • Six different riders have won the six Moto3 races that have taken place at Brno: 2012 -Jonas Folger, 2013 – Luis Salom, 2014 – Alexis Masbou, 2015 – Niccolo Antonelli, 2016 – John McPhee, 2017 – Joan Mir.
By |2018-08-01T08:02:29+00:00August 1st, 2018|Uncategorised|Comments Off on Czech GP 2018 – Facts and Stats
Go to Top