MOTOGP PREVIEW
20 August 2006 - Moto GP

Sunday August 20th 2006

· Valentino Rossi starts from pole for the second time in 2006. From the thirty-one previous times that Rossi has started on pole in the premier-class, he has gone on to win on twenty-six occasions; a win rate of 84% from pole position.

· This week marks the 10th anniversary of Rossi’s first win in Grand Prix racing, riding an Aprilia in the 125cc class at Brno on the 18th August 1996.

· Rossi’s pole time is the fastest ever lap of Brno by a motorcycle.

· The top eleven riders have lapped faster than Sete Gibernau’s pole record from last year and the top fifteen riders have lapped faster than the lap record set in the race last year by Rossi.

· This is the first front row start for both Loris Capirossi and Ducati since Mugello.

· Kenny Roberts, who finished on the podium here in 1999, is starting on the front row for the third successive race.

· Nicky Hayden has finished on the podium on each of the previous six occasions this year when he has qualified on the second row of the grid.

· Shinya Nakano has been the first Kawasaki rider across the line for the past two seasons at this circuit, finishing in twelfth place on both occasions.

· Toni Elias is starting from his best grid position since he qualified on the front row in Qatar.

· Seventh place for John Hopkins represents the best qualifying result at Brno for a Suzuki rider since 2001, when Kenny Roberts was sixth.

· Colin Edwards has scored points at the last 32 successive races. The only rider with a longer run of point-scoring finishes is Mick Doohan, with 37.

· At the age of 20 years 325 days, if Dani Pedrosa wins he will become the youngest rider ever to win in three different classes at the same circuit, taking the record from Mike Hailwood who was 21 years and 75 days old when he won the 125cc, 250cc and 500cc races at the Isle of Man TT in 1961.

· For the first time this year James Ellison has qualified higher on the grid than his team-mate Carlos Checa.

· Jorge Lorenzo is starting from pole for the eighth time in 2006. He has won five times in the previous seven races he has started from pole this year.

· Andrea Dovizioso, who is starting from the front row for the seventh time in 2006, has finished in the top four in nine out of ten races this season.

· Hiroshi Aoyama is starting from the front row for just the second time in 2006.

· Hector Barbera is aiming to finish on the podium for the first time since he won the fourth race of the year in China.

· Alex de Angelis and Jorge Lorenzo have both finished on the podium at the last five successive races.

· Aleix Espargaró has qualified in the top ten for the first time in only his fourth appearance in the class.

· Mika Kallio starts from pole for the third time in 2006. On each of the previous two occasions, in China and Holland, he has gone on to win the race.

· A top four finish for Alvaro Bautista will make him the first ever rider in the 125cc class to have finished in the top four at the first eleven races of the year.

· Bautista is starting from the front row for the tenth time in 2006.

· Lukas Pesek is the first Czech rider ever to qualify on the front row for a Grand Prix at the current Brno circuit.

· Pesek is also aiming to become the first Czech rider to finish on the podium at his home Grand Prix since Bohumil Stasa finished second in the 350cc race back in 1971.

· Hector Faubel is starting from the front row for the first time since the Catalunya GP, which is also the last race at which he finished on the podium.

· Following his win in Germany, Mattia Pasini will be aiming to score back-to-back victories for the first time in his career.

· Just three riders have managed to score points at each of the first ten races of the year: team-mates Alvaro Bautista, Hector Faubel and Sergio Gadea.

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