GRAND PRIX OF TURKEY - SUNDAY GUIDE
29 April 2006 - Moto GP

Grand Prix of Turkey - Sunday 30th April 2006

· Chris Vermeulen starts from pole for the first time in only his 5th start in the MotoGP class. This is the second consecutive race that a rookie rider from Australia has started from pole. Suzuki will be looking to take their first win since the Valencia GP in 2001 when Sete Gibernau was onboard.

· Vermeulen’s pole is the first for Suzuki since the Rio GP in 2004, when Kenny Roberts started on pole then riding a Suzuki.

· Nicky Hayden is the only rider who has qualified in the top six using Michelin tyres, with the rest using Bridgestone. Hayden, who is making his 50th start in MotoGP, will be aiming for a seventh consecutive podium finish.

· Sete Gibernau will be aiming to finish on the podium for the first time since he was second in Germany last July.

· Loris Capirossi, who missed the race in Turkey last year, will be making his 50th MotoGP start riding for Ducati. If Capirossi finishes in the top fifteen it will be his 100th point scoring finish in the premier-class.

· John Hopkins is starting from his best grid position since he qualified third in Malaysia last year.

· Randy de Puniet has out-qualified his team mate for the first time in only his third start in the MotoGP class.

· If Casey Stoner wins the race in Turkey he will become the joint youngest winner ever in the premier-class, being exactly the same age as Freddie Spencer (20 years 196 days) when he took his debut victory at the Belgium GP at Spa-Francorchamps in 1982.

· Colin Edwards has finished in the points at every race since he was second at Qatar in 2004, a run of 23 successive point scoring finishes. Edwards has out-qualified his team mate Rossi for just the second time since joining the Yamaha team at the start of last year.

· Valentino Rossi, who is making his 100th start in the premier-class, has failed to qualify on the front row for the fifth successive race. The Istanbul Park Circuit is one of only two current circuits that Rossi has not scored a victory in the premier-class, the other being the Laguna Seca circuit in the USA. If Rossi finishes in ninth place or higher in Turkey he will become the top point scorer of all time in Grand Prix racing, taking the record from Max Biaggi.

· Toni Elias is making his 100th Grand Prix start including 48 in the 250cc class and 35 on a 125cc machine. Elias finished sixth in Turkey last year, his best result in his rookie season in the MotoGP class.

· Jorge Lorenzo starts from pole for the third successive race. If Lorenzo is victorious in Turkey he will become the youngest ever rider to win three successive races in the 250cc class.

· Alex de Angelis will be making his 100th GP start, including 65 in the 125cc class.

· Since joining the 250cc class at the start of last year, Andrea Dovizioso has finished in the top ten seventeen times in the eighteen races in which he has competed, including seven podium finishes.

· Yuki Takahashi will be aiming to finish on the podium for the first time outside Japan.

· Hiroshi Aoyama has taken the KTM 250cc machine to its highest ever qualifying position in the 250cc class.

· Marco Simoncelli’s seventh place on the grid is the best qualifying result for a Gilera rider since Carlos Lavado qualified seventh for the Brazilian Grand Prix in 1992.

· Alvaro Bautista starts from pole for the second successive race, having never previously started from pole position before the Qatar race three weeks ago.

· If Alvaro Bautista wins in Turkey he will become the first rider since Masao Azuma in 1999 to win the first three races of the year in the 125cc class and the first Spanish rider to take three successive 125cc GP wins since his current team owner Jorge Martinez ‘Aspar’ did so back in 1988.

· Mattia Pasini starts from the front row for the fifteenth successive Grand Prix.

· Simone Corsi, who competed in the 250cc class last year, starts from the front row of the grid for the first time since he qualified second for the 125cc Portuguese GP in 2004.

· Hector Faubel qualified second on the grid last year in Turkey and then crashed on the fourth lap while battling with the leading group of riders.

· Mika Kallio crashed out of the race last year in Turkey on the last lap whilst leading the race.

· Mike di Meglio has failed to score any points in the three races since he took the only GP victory of his career last year in Turkey.

· Honda has yet to have a rider finish in the top seven in the opening two 125cc races of the year.

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