MotoGP Valencia
• Casey Stoner is starting from pole for the third time in 2009. On each of the other two occasions he has started on pole this year, in Qatar and Australia, he has gone on to win the race. If he takes the race victory in Valencia, he will be the only MotoGP rider to take three successive wins in 2009.
• Dani Pedrosa, who has won in all three classes at Valencia, is starting from the front row for the tenth time in 2009.
• For the first time this year there are no Yamaha riders qualified either in first or second place on the grid.
• Jorge Lorenzo has qualified on the front row sixteen times in the seventeen races of 2009. Valencia is one of just three current circuits where Lorenzo has not had a Grand Prix victory in any class, the others being Sachsenring and Laguna Seca.
• For the first time since the Italian Grand Prix, Valentino Rossi has failed to qualify on the front row and will be starting from fourth place on the grid. Valencia is one of only four circuits on this year’s calendar where Rossi has not had a win riding the 800cc bike.
• Fifth place on the grid for Colin Edwards equals his best qualifying result of the year, that he has achieved seven times previously in 2009.
• Nicky Hayden is sixth on the grid – his best qualifying result since the San Marino Grand Prix.
• Seventh fastest qualifier, Randy de Puniet, won the 250cc race at Valencia in 2003 riding an Aprilia.
• Yamaha wild-card rider Ben Spies has qualified in ninth place on the grid, but is just one second slower than the fastest Yamaha qualifier Jorge Lorenzo.
• A top fifteen finish for Chris Vermeulen at the final race of the year will mean he has scored points at all seventeen races during the 2009 season.
MotoGP Valencia: 250cc
• This is the 716th and last GP in the 250 class, which has been included as part of the Grand Prix world championship series since 1949.
• Alex Debón, who will be making his 139th Grand Prix start in the 250cc class, has qualified on pole for just the fourth time.
• Marco Simoncelli is aiming to take the championship for the second successive season without having scored points in the opening two races of the year.
• Héctor Barberá and Hiroshi Aoyama are the only two riders to score points in every 250cc GP race so far in 2009.
• Fourth on the grid is Ratthapark Wilairot – the first rider from Thailand to qualify on the front row of the grid for a Grand Prix race.
• Hiroshi Aoyama will win the world title if he finishes 11th or better, even if his closest challenger Marco Simoncelli wins the race.
• Sixth on the grid for Thomas Luthi is his best qualifying result since the Catalan GP.
MotoGP Valencia: 125cc
• Julián Simón starts from pole for the seventh time this year. From his previous six poles in 2009 he has only gone on to finish on the podium twice – second place in Qatar and a win in Germany. His sixth place finish in the 250cc GP in 2007 is Simón’s best result from seven GP starts at the Ricardo Tormo circuit.
• Simone Corsi, who won the 125cc race at Valencia last year, is starting from second place on the grid – his best qualifying result of the year.
• Third on the grid, Bradley Smith, has finished on the podium at the last five successive races.
• Marc Márquez starts from the front row for the seventh time this year. From his six previous front row starts in 2009 his third place finish at Jerez is his only top ten finish.
• Fifth on the grid is Joan Olivé, equalling his best qualifying result of the year. Olive’s best result from eight previous starts at Valencia was ninth in 2002.
• A victory for any Aprilia rider would be the 14th win in the 125cc class for Aprilia during 2009, which would equal the record for most wins by a manufacturer in the 125cc class in a single season, that Aprilia themselves achieved in 2007.
• Marcel Schrotter, making just his fourth Grand Prix start, has qualified seventh on the grid riding a Honda. Schrotter qualified fourth on the grid at the Sachsenring earlier in the year but finished the race down in 12th.
