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MotoGP

■ Jorge Lorenzo took his first MotoGP victory last year at the Portuguese GP in only his third race in the elite class which took him to the top of the championship table equal on points with Pedrosa. This was Lorenzo’s first ever win at the Estoril circuit.

■ Dani Pedrosa’s second place finish in 2007 in Portugal after a race long battle with Rossi was his first podium finish in any class of Grand Prix racing at the Estoril circuit. Last year he was again the first Honda across the line in second place. Estoril is one of just four current circuits where Pedrosa has not had a win in any class of GP racing; the others are Losail,Indianapolis and Misano.

■ Toni Elias has a fantastic record at the Estoril circuit having won three times; the 250cc GP race in 2003 and 2004, and the MotoGP race in 2006 after he had qualified down in eleventh place on the grid. Things have not gone as well for the last two years, finishing 8th in 2007 after running off the track early in the race and last year he was 12th but still in front of fellow Ducati riders Melandri and Guintoli.

250cc

■ Alvaro Bautista has won for the last three years in Portugal – the 125cc race in 2006 and the 250cc race in both 2007 and 2008. In 2007 he won after finishing the first lap down in 12th place and then setting a new lap record as he stormed through the field. Last year he was lead- ing by the end of the first lap and maintained the lead throughout the race to win by more than seven seconds.

■ Hector Barbera’s fifth place finish in 2007 is his best result at Estoril since moving up to the 250cc class. Barbera won the 125cc Portuguese GP in 2004 riding an Aprilia.

■ Hector Faubel won the 125cc race at Estoril in 2007. After scoring just 7 points in the first three races of this year Faubel has now had nine successive top ten finishes.

125cc

■ Julian simon’s best result at Estoril is 5th, in 2006 when riding a KTM. Simon needs to score just 43 points from the remaining four races to secure the world title irrespective of the results of other riders.

■ Nico Terol’s third place finish last year in Portugal was his first point scoring finish at the Estoril circuit.

■ Pol Espargaro’s third place finish two years ago at Estoril was his first appearance on a Grand Prix podium.

■ Joan Olive finished second last year at Estoril – one of his four podium finishes of 2008.

This will be the tenth year that the Portuguese Grand Prix has been held at the Estoril circuit. Prior to moving to Estoril there had been two previous Portuguese Grand Prix events, both hosted in Spain; at Jarama in 1987 and Jerez in 1988. The first Grand Prix event at Estoril was in 2000 and it has been on the calendar every year since. Below are the highlights of the previous nine Grand Prix events held at Estoril:

2000 – Garry McCoy had the honour of winning the first 500cc race at Estoril riding a Yamaha, after qualifying on pole for the only time in the premier-class. In the 250cc class Daijiro Kato took his first GP victory outside of Japan from Olivier Jacque, with Marco Melandri finishing third to become the youngest ever rider to finish on a 250cc podium.

2001 – Each of the races were won by riders on their way to winning their respective world titles: 500cc – Valentino Rossi, 250cc- Daijiro Kato and 125cc – Manuel Poggiali.

2002 – Valentino Rossi won a race that was run in very wet conditions, after Sete Gibernau had led for most of the race only to crash out with four laps to go. Fonsi Nieto had an incredible win in the 250cc race after crashing on lap thirteen and re-joining the race down in seventh place.

2003 – Valentino Rossi won in the premier-class for the third successive year at Estoril. Spanish riders were successful in the smaller classes, with Toni Elias winning the 250cc race and Pablo Nieto taking his one and only GP victory in the 125cc class.

2004 – Both Valentino Rossi and Toni Elias repeated the victories of the previous year. The 125cc race was won by Hector Barbera ahead of current MotoGP riders Mika Kallio and Jorge Lorenzo.

2005 – Alex Barros dominated proceedings by winning the race from pole position and setting the fastest lap as well as being fastest in every practice session. This was the last time that Barros stood on the top step of the podium in Grand Prix racing. Casey Stoner won for the first time in the 250cc class, while Mika Kallio took his first ever Grand Prix win in the 125cc class.

2006 – After qualifying down in 11th place on the grid, Toni Elias scored his one and only MotoGP victory to date by just 0.002 seconds from Valentino Rossi to equal the closest ever recorded finish in the premier-class since the introduction of electronic timing. Alvaro Bautista’s win in the 125cc race was his 14th podium of the year – a new record for most podium finishes in a single season in the 125cc class.

2007 – Valentino Rossi won for the fifth time at Estoril after a great battle with Pedrosa. Alvaro Bautista takes the 250cc race after finishing lap one down in 12th place. Hector Faubel won the 125cc race from champions- hip rival Gabor Talmacsi, with Pol Espargaro taking his first ever GP podium in third.

2008 – Last year the Portuguese Grand Prix was the third event of the year and gave Jorge Lorenzo his first MotoGP win after he had qualified on pole for the third successive race. With this victory, Lorenzo became the 100th different rider to win a premier-class Grand Prix. Alvaro Bautista took his first win of the year in the 250cc class while Simone Corsi took back-to-back wins to extend his lead in the 125cc championship chase.

• Misano is one of just three current circuits at which Dani Pedrosa has not had a MotoGP podium; the others are Indianapolis and Phillip Island.

• Third on the grid, Jorge Lorenzo has maintained his record of qualifying on the front row at every race in 2009. Following his victory at Indianapolis, Lorenzo will be aiming to score back-to-back MotoGP victories for the first time.

• Leading the second row of the grid is Toni Elias, who has equalled his best qualifying performance of the year which he achieved at Brno, where he also finished on the podium for the only time in 2009. Last year at Misano, Elias was the first Ducati rider home in third place.

• Aleix Espargaro, having only his second start in MotoGP, has qualified just one second slower that the fastest Ducati rider on the grid, Nicky Hayden.

• Second on the 250cc grid is Hector Barbera. who is starting from the front row for the eighth successive race.

• Eighth fastest 250cc qualifier Alvaro Bautista, is starting from the second row of the grid for the fourth successive race after having qualified on the front row for the opening eight races of the year. He won the 250cc race last year at Misano after qualifying down in 11th on the grid.

• Second on the 125cc grid, Julian Simon starts from the front row for the eleventh time this year.

• Nico Terol has finished in the top four six times in the past seven races.

• If sixth fastest 125cc qualifier Pol Espargaro wins the race it will be the 50th win for Derbi in the 125cc class. Espargaro will be making his 50th Grand Prix start.

24 – Hungarian 250cc rider Imre Toth will celebrate his 24th birthday on race day at Misano.
23 – The 2005 125cc world champion Thomas Luthi will celebrate his 23rd birthday on race day at Misano.
20 – Colin Edwards’ fifth place finish at the Indianapolis GP was his 20th successive point scoring result.
17 – On race day at Misano it will be exactly seventeen years since Alessandro Gramigni finished third in the final 125cc GP race of 1992 in South Africa to become the first Aprilia rider to win a world title.
12 – Pol Espargaro’s win at Indianapolis on a Derbi ended a run of 12 successive 125cc wins by Aprilia – their longest ever sequence of successive 125cc GP wins.
12 – Misano has staged Grand Prix events on twelve previous occasions, the first of which was in 1980. The ten occasions that a GP was hosted at Misano up to 1993 the races were run in the opposite direction around the circuit to those held in the last two years.
11 – There have been eleven previous San Marino Grand Prix events. The first San Marino Grand Prix was held at Imola in 1981. Three different circuits have hosted the San Marino Grand Prix – Imola twice (1981 & 1983), Mugello four times (1982, 84, 91 and 93) and Misano on five occasions (1985, 86, 87, 2007 and 2008).
9 – Nine different riders have appeared on the podium in the MotoGP class in the last three races. The last time that three successive races in the premier-class has resulted in nine different riders appearing on the podium was back in 1992 at the German, Dutch and Hungarian Grand Prix.
9 – Bradley Smith’s second place finish at Indianapolis secured Aprilia the 125cc constructor’s title for the ninth time.
5 – At the Indianapolis Grand Prix, Nicky Hayden became just the 5th rider to finish on the podium on the 800cc Ducati, joining Casey Stoner, Loris Capirossi, Toni Elias and Alex Barros.
2 – Misano is one of just two current circuits where Rossi has not started from pole riding a MotoGP machine; the other is Laguna Seca.

Sad to say goodbye to Spain but at least I’m back for Alvaro’s fanclub summer party in a couple of weeks, El Canto Del Loco in concert in October and the Valencia GP in November…

> Blogged from my iPhone <

The provisional 2010 calendar for MotoGP has been revealed…

April 11 * Qatar Doha/Losail
April 25 Japan Motegi
May 2 Spain Jerez de la Frontera
May 16 France Le Mans
May 30 Italy Mugello
June 6 Great Britain Silverstone
June 26 ** Netherlands Assen
July 4 Catalunya Catalunya
July 18 Germany Sachsenring
July 25 *** United States Laguna Seca
August 15 Czech Rep. Brno
August 29 Indianapolis Indianapolis
September 12 San Marino Misano
September 19 Hungary Balatonring
October 10 Malaysia Sepang
October 17 Australia Phillip Island
October 31 Portugal Estoril
November 7 Valencia Ricardo Tormo – Valencia

*: Evening Race
**: Saturday
***: Only MotoGP class