Facts And Stats Heading Into The 2018 Italian MotoGP

Rennie Scaysbrook | May 31, 2018

Facts And Stats Heading Into The 2018 Italian MotoGP—If there’s one MotoGP race you need to visit in your lifetime, it’s the Italian MotoGP. Nestled in the gorgeous Tuscan countryside, Mugello is one of the all-time great Grand Prix venues, with crowds usually in excess of 100,000 fans on race day.

Facts And Stats Heading Into The 2018 Italian MotoGP

Thanks to MotoGP.com, we’ve got a few facts and stats heading into this year’s classic.

This is the 33rd occasion that a GP has been held at the Mugello circuit, including 27 times in the consecutive years from 1991.
Mugello hosted a Grand Prix event for the first time in 1976. The 500cc race was won by Barry Sheene just 0.1 sec ahead of Phil Read in a race lasting over 62 minutes. This was at a time when Suzuki riders dominated the premier class; the first non-Suzuki rider home was Waerum Borge Nielsen in 10th place on a Yamaha.
The layout of the Mugello circuit has remained basically the same since 1976, with the official track length of 5.245km remaining unchanged.
A total of 102 Grand Prix races for solo motorcycles have been held at the Mugello circuit since 1976, as follows: MotoGP™ –16, 500cc–16, Moto2™ –8, 350cc–2, 250cc–24, Moto3™ –6, 125cc–25, 80cc–2, 50cc–3.
Misano is the only other circuit that has hosted the Italian GP, in 1991 and 1993. The Mugello circuit also hosted the Nations GP (1976, 1978 and 1985) and the San Marino GP (1982, 1984, 1991 and 1993).
Since the first Grand Prix in the premier class at Mugello, Honda has been the most successful manufacturer with 16 wins, the last of which was in 2014 with Marc Márquez.
Yamaha has had 12 wins in the premier class, including Kenny Roberts (1978) and Wayne Rainey (1991) in the 500 World Championship and five successive victories with Valentino Rossi from 2004 to 2008. Jorge Lorenzo then won every year bar one from 2011 to 2016, with Marc Marquez taking the victory in 2014.
Last year, Andrea Dovizioso gave Ducati their second MotoGP™ win at Mugello since Casey Stoner back in 2009, becoming the first Italian rider to win on an Italian bike at this track in the premier class.
The best result for Suzuki in the MotoGP™ era is 5th, which was achieved by John Hopkins in 2007 and Loris Capirossi in 2009. Prior to that, Suzuki won twice at Mugello in the premier class with Barry Sheene (1976) and Kevin Schwantz (1992).
Loris Capirossi is the only Italian rider other than Rossi and Dovizioso to win in the premier class at Mugello—the 500cc race in 2000, after a race-long battle with his countrymen Max Biaggi and Rossi, both of whom crashed in the closing stages.
The MotoGP™ race at Mugello in 2004 is the shortest ever premier class Grand Prix race. The race lasted just six laps, after the first attempt to run the race was stopped due to rain and then restarted for the remaining laps under the rain rules as they stood at that time.
Italy, together with the Netherlands and Great Britain, is one of the only three countries that have hosted a motorcycle Grand Prix event in each year since the motorcycling world championship series started in 1949.
The MotoGP™ race victories at Mugello in the 16 years since it was introduced as the premier class of Grand Prix racing are shared by just six riders: Valentino Rossi (7 wins), Jorge Lorenzo (5 wins); Dani Pedrosa, Casey Stoner, Marc Marquez and Andrea Dovizioso all having a single win at Mugello.
The winning margin for Jorge Lorenzo over Marc Marquez at Mugello two years ago was just 0.019 seconds, making it the seventh closest finish of all-time in the premier class of Grand Prix racing.
In 2016 at Mugello, just 0.077 seconds covered the first five riders across the line in the Moto3™ race, making it the closest Grand Prix top five of all-time.
The eight Moto2™ races that have taken place at Mugello have been won by six different riders: Andrea Iannone (2010 and 2012), Marc Márquez (2011), Scott Redding (2013), Tito Rabat (2014 and 2015), Johann Zarco (2016) and Mattia Pasini (2017).
The six Moto3™ races that have taken place at Mugello have been won by six different riders: Maverick Viñales, Luis Salom, Romano Fenati, Miguel Oliveira, Brad Binder, Andrea Migno. Only one of them was won by a non-KTM rider: 2012, Maverick Viñales on an FTR Honda.