The 2023 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship is fast approaching the halfway mark of the season, with five rounds out of 12 done and dusted. The Pirelli Emilia-Romagna Round at the Misano World Circuit “Marco Simoncelli” welcomed a crowd of over 70,000 fans and they were all treated to some spectacular racing. Along with that, history was made, big stats achieved and plenty more in this week’s stats round-up.
351 – In the Superpole Race, Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK) took second and put Yamaha on a 350th podium in WorldSBK. His second in Race 2 means they’ve featured on 351 podiums in the class.
282,0 – During FP3 and Warm Up, Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) set a new top speed record for Misano in WorldSBK at 282,0km/h, beating Ayrton Badovini’s 281,7km/h from back in 2012’s Race 2 for BMW.
258 – 258 straight races in the points for Ducati, equal to the second-best overall streak in WorldSBK history, set by Kawasaki. Ducati themselves hold the absolute record at 344 from Brainerd Race 1, 1991 to Valencia Race 1, 2005.
100 – Stefano Manzi (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha) took his first win of the WorldSSP season and also the 100th win in WorldSSP for Ten Kate Racing.
46 – Alvaro Bautista’s triple puts him on 46 wins, moving him into fourth in the all-time win rankings in WorldSBK. His next target is the top three, with third currently occupied by Troy Bayliss with 52.
40 – Bautista’s fastest lap in Race 2 was the 40th of his career, putting him fifth overall in the all-time standings.
27 – Despite being a previous full-time rider in WorldSSP300, Bruno Ieraci (ProDina Kawasaki Racing) became the 27th different winner in the class with a fine double at home at Misano.
22 – Despite his worst weekend of the year in terms of points, Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK) extended his points-scoring run to 22, the most of anyone right now on the WorldSBK grid. The absolute biggest streak for this was achieved by Jonathan Rea at 48, from Laguna Seca Race 1, 2018 to Lusail Race 2, 2019.
19 – Two podiums for Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) puts him on 19 for his career, 39th overall in the podium tallies and one shy of Loris Baz (Bonovo Action BMW) on 20.
17 – After his three Misano wins, Bautista is on 14 for the season, just three shy of the record of wins in one season, which is 17, held by Doug Polen from 1991 and Jonathan Rea in 2018 and 2019.
15 – Of the 15 races of 2023, Yamaha have taken 15 podiums, their best streak ever.
14 – 14 wins for Alvaro Bautista in 2023 from 15 possible races so far is a new record for the most wins in the same period at the start of the season.
8/5 – The eighth different podium finisher of 2023 and the fifth of his career, Axel Bassani (Motocorsa Racing) took a maiden podium in Italy in Race 2. He’s the 11th different Italian to achieve a Misano podium and the 71st different rider to achieve at least five WorldSBK podiums.
7 – Seven straight points-scoring finishes for Garrett Gerloff (Bonovo Action BMW), more than any other BMW rider has managed in 2023. Gerloff’s points tally of 51 makes for interesting reading too, as it’s three more than he achieved on Yamaha machinery after five rounds of 2022 – he did miss Estoril through injury however.
6 – Six points-scoring races inside the top ten for Xavi Vierge (Team HRC), the first time in 2023 and the first time since Portimao Race 2 to Phillip Island’s Superpole Race last year.
1 – For the first time since joining Kawasaki, Jonathan Rea failed to achieve a single podium at Misano, the circuit he got his first career win at, back in 2009. It’s also the first time since 2012 that Kawasaki failed to achieve a podium at the track.
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Source: WorldSBK.com