MotoGP: next stop Jerez

Jerez is the first European stop on the 2011 MotoGP world championship calendar this weekend, where Australia’s Casey Stoner could become public enemy No. 1 by getting the better of local Spanish heroes Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa.

After victory on his factory Repsol Honda debut in Qatar, Stoner is the early 2011 pacesetter having become the first Honda rider to win the opening round of the season since 2003.

Stoner has however only stepped onto the podium at Jerez on one previous occasion across all GP classes (in 2009), and will have to contest with the might of defending world champion Lorenzo and his own team-mate Pedrosa, both of whom will be fully focused on delighting a partisan home crowd.

Despite the convincing nature of his performance in Qatar, Stoner is weary heading into the Spanish round of the season.

“In the last few years I haven’t had very good results at Jerez, as I could be fast but in the race things didn’t always go my way,” Stoner said. “After the good start of this season we have the chance to complete a positive weekend.”

In his last three races at Jerez Stoner has finished fifth, third and 11th.

Lorenzo (Yamaha) was the only non-Honda inside the top five across the finish line in Qatar, and the will be determined to underline the message his second place at Losail sent out. Having achieved his first MotoGP win on Spanish soil at Jerez last year thanks to a last-lap pass on Pedrosa, the pair will both aim to improve on their podium finishing starts to 2011.

Pedrosa will also hope that he does not experience as severe a reaction from his recovering collarbone as the one he did towards the end of the Qatar race, which prompted him to have a medical check-up last week.

Italian Honda duo Andrea Dovizioso and Marco Simoncelli have both experienced success on the track in the lower categories and will fancy their respective chances of pushing for a first premier class podium at Jerez this weekend, whilst Ben Spies (Yamaha) aims to build on a season-opening sixth place finish.

Valentino Rossi is the most successful rider ever at the Jerez circuit having taken six premier class victories there, and the Italian kicked off his Ducati career with seventh in Qatar. Still undergoing a process of adaptation to the GP11 and contending with his recovering shoulder, Rossi and team-mate Nicky Hayden will be concentrated on adding to Ducati’s sole podium finish in the 800cc era (Stoner, 2009) in the last season of the engine capacity limitation.

Colin Edwards (Yamaha) has finished on the podium at Jerez (2007), while team-mate Cal Crutchlow enters his second MotoGP race confident following a solid introduction at Qatar.

Hiroshi Aoyama (Honda) comes in off the back of a top 10 start to the season and has won at Jerez in the 250 class, while Ducati pair Héctor Barberá and rookie Karel Abraham will seek progress.

Another Ducati duo, Loris Capirossi and Randy de Puniet, will aim to put a disappointing opening round behind them, as will Toni Elías (Honda) at a track on which he took Moto2 victory last year.

Álvaro Bautista remains sidelined following surgery on the left femur he fractured during practice in Qatar, and the Spaniard’s place on the factory Suzuki team will be taken by American substitute John Hopkins, who makes his first MotoGP appearance since the 2008 Valencia GP.

In Moto2, Queenslander Anthony West (MZ) will be desperate to show some signs of improvement after a disastrous opening in Qatar, while Jerez also opens this year’s Red Bull MotoGP Rookies season where Australian Arthur Sissis has been consistently at the top of the timesheets in pre-season testing.

A selection of facts and stats ahead of Jerez
37 – With Álvaro Bautista being unfit to race, the Qatar Grand Prix was the first time in 37 years with no Suzuki lining up on the grid. The last time was at the 1974 German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring – a race which was boycotted by the top riders on safety grounds and had only seven starters.

28 – On race day in at the Spanish Grand Prix it will be exactly 28 years since the French Grand Prix of 1983 at Le Mans which was won by Freddie Spencer from team-mates Marco Lucchinelli and Ron Haslam; this was the first ever all Honda podium in the premier class.

25 – This will be the 25th successive year that a Grand Prix event has been held at the Jerez circuit since it was first used in 1987. Assen is the only other current venue that has been used consecutively for this length of time.

24 – Casey Stoner’s win in Qatar was his 24th in the premier class, which places him 7th in the all-time winners list alongside Wayne Rainey. One more win and he would equal the number of lifetime Grand Prix wins of Kevin Schwantz.

21 – Jorge Lorenzo’s second place finish in Qatar was the 21st successive race where he has finished in the top four. The last time he failed to finish in the top four was at the Australian GP in 2009 when he crashed at the first corner.

10 – Portuguese rider Miguel Oliveira finished 10th on his Grand Prix debut in the 125cc class in Qatar. This is only the second ever GP point scoring finish by a Portuguese rider; the other was by Andre Nuno, who finished tenth in the 250cc class of the Spanish Grand Prix at Jarama in 1973.

9 – Maverick Vinales finished ninth on his Grand Prix debut in Qatar. This is the best result by a rider making his Grand Prix debut in the 125cc class since Scott Redding finished fifth in Qatar in 2008.

8 – Valentino Rossi is the most successful rider at the Jerez circuit with eight Grand Prix victories to his name; a single victory in both the 125cc and 250cc classes to add to his six in the premier class.

7.71 seconds – Nico Terol won the 125cc race in Qatar by 7.71 seconds, which is the greatest margin of victory in a fully dry 125cc GP race since Julián Simón won the German GP in 2009 by more than nine seconds.

7th – Valentino Rossi’s seventh place finish on his debut on the factory Ducati was only the fourth time since the start of 2002 that he has finished outside the top six in a dry race when he has not crashed and re-started. The other occasions were in Turkey and Czech Republic in 2007 when he had tyre problems and at the Dutch TT in 2006 when he was suffering from injuries sustained in a crash during practice.

7 – Spanish riders have won in the premier class on seven occasions at Jerez – Alberto Puig in 1995, Alex Criville in 1997, 1998 and 1999, Sete Gibernau in 2004, Dani Pedrosa in 2008 and Jorge Lorenzo last year.

5 – Jerez is one of just five current circuits at which Casey Stoner did not win during his time in the Ducati factory team; the others were Estoril, Le Mans, Silverstone and Indianapolis.

4 – Honda and Yamaha have each four victories at Jerez with their 4-stroke MotoGP bikes. Ducati have had a single MotoGP victory at Jerez.

3 – All three races at Jerez last year were won by Spanish riders; one of six Grand Prix events in 2010 when Spanish riders won all three races.
1.534 seconds – The reduction in the lap record time at Qatar for the Moto2 class, reflecting the improvement from 12 months of development time. The pole position time was reduced by 1.736 seconds and the race was 33.219 seconds faster than 2010.

1 – Casey Stoner’s third place finish in 2009 is the only podium finish at Jerez for Ducati during the 800cc era of MotoGP.