MOTOGP PREVIEW
17 September 2006 - Moto GP

GMC Australian Grand Prix - Sunday Guide , September 17th 2006

• Nicky Hayden starts from pole for the first time since this race last year.

• Hayden’s pole time is the fastest ever lap of the Phillip Island circuit by a motorcycle.

• Hayden is the eighth different rider to start from pole this year, the others being Capirossi, Gibernau, Hopkins, Pedrosa, Rossi, Stoner and Vermeulen.

• Shinya Nakano is starting from the front row for the fourth time in 2006.

• Nakano’s seventh place finish last year is the best ever result by a Kawasaki rider at Phillip Island.

• If Valentino Rossi wins the race, then Phillip Island will become the first circuit at which he will have scored six victories in the premier-class.

• Kenny Roberts Jr. has qualified in the top four for the fifth successive race.

• Colin Edwards has finished on the podium in World Superbike races at Phillip Island on eight occasions, including a win in 2001.

• Carlos Checa is starting from his best grid position since the last race of 2005 at Valencia.

• Checa’s sixth place is the best qualifying result for a rider using Dunlop tyres since Garry McCoy was fourth at Valencia in 2002.

• Marco Melandri won the 125cc race here in 1999 and the 250cc race in 2002. A victory in MotoGP would make him the first rider to win in all classes at Phillip Island.

• Casey Stoner has finished in the top six on eight occasions in his debut MotoGP season.

• Dani Pedrosa is starting from his lowest grid position since he was eleventh at Catalunya.

• Pedrosa has been the top scoring rider in MotoGP over the last six races, having scored 106 points to Rossi’s 98 and Hayden’s 95.

• If Loris Capirossi finishes in the top fifteen he will become the first rider to reach the milestone of 200 point-scoring finishes in Grand Prix racing.

• Casey Stoner and Chris Vermeulen are aiming for the first podium by a home rider in Australia since Mick Doohan won at Phillip Island in 1998.

• Jorge Lorenzo starts from pole for the ninth time in 2006, just one less than the record number of poles in a season in the 250cc class set by Anton Mang in 1981.

• Lorenzo has finished on the podium at the last seven successive races.

• Alex de Angelis is starting from his best grid position since the Dutch TT.

• Sylvain Guintoli has equalled his best ever grid position - achieved twice in 2003 in Portugal and Valencia.

• Andrea Dovizioso, who won the 125cc race here on his way to the world title in 2004, has only once failed to finish in the top ten in the 28 races he has started since moving to the 250cc class.

• Marco Simoncelli is starting from his best grid position since moving to the 250cc class at the start of this year.

• Fifth place for Simoncelli is the best qualifying result for Gilera in the 250cc class since Carlos Lavado was fourth on the grid at the Hungarian GP in 1992.

• Four different manufacturers are represented on the front row of the grid for the first time since Qatar 2004, when the same four manufacturers each had a rider on the front row.

• Phillip Island is the only circuit on the current calendar where Aprilia have not had a victory in the 125cc class.

• Mika Kallio starts from pole for the fourth time in 2006.

• Alvaro Bautista, who has qualified on the front row of the grid for the twelfth time this year, can clinch the world title by finishing in front of Kallio.

• If Bautista wins the race he will be the first rider in the class to take seven wins in one year since Haruchika Aoki in 1995.

• Lukas Pesek, who is still aiming to be the first Czech rider to win a 125cc race despite three podiums this year, starts from the front row for the eighth time in 2006.

• Thomas Luthi, who won at Phillip Island last year, starts on the front row of the grid for the first time since the final race of 2005 in Valencia.

• Team-mates Sergio Gadea and Alvaro Bautista are the only two riders in the 125cc class to have scored points at all twelve races this season.

• Raffaele De Rosa’s seventh place on the grid is his best ever qualifying result.

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