MotoGP Report
• Jorge Lorenzo starts from pole for the second successive race. Following his dominant win at Silverstone, Lorenzo could become the first Yamaha rider during the four-stroke MotoGP era to do the clean sweep of pole, race win and fastest lap, at back-to-back races.
• If Jorge Lorenzo takes the win he will join the following elite group of riders who have won in three or more different classes at the Dutch TT: Jim Redman, Mike Hailwood, Valentino Rossi, Phil Read, Luigi Taveri and Dieter Braun.
• Randy de Puniet has qualified in second place on the grid for the second successive race. He will be aiming to become the first non-factory Honda rider to finish on the podium since Alex de Angelis was second at the Indianapolis GP last year.
• Third on the grid, Casey Stoner, has finished on the podium for the last three years at the Dutch TT, including a victory two years ago.
• Fourth place on the grid is the best ever qualifying performance in MotoGP for Ben Spies.
• Nicky Hayden has already finished fourth on four occasions in the first five races of 2010.
• Andrea Dovizioso’s race position has been an improvement on his qualifying by at least two places in each of the five races held so far in 2010.
• Seventh on the grid for Dani Pedrosa equals his worst qualifying result of the year, which he had at the first race of the season in Qatar.
• Eighth place on the grid for Marco Simoncelli is his best qualifying result so far since moving up to the MotoGP class.
• Aleix Espargaro finished fourth last year in the 250cc race at the Dutch TT – his best ever Grand Prix result.
• If a Yamaha rider wins the MotoGP race at Assen it will be the 56th victory for Yamaha’s four-stroke MotoGP machine, equalling the number of wins by Honda in MotoGP.
Moto2
• Andrea Iannone starts from pole for the second time this year. His other pole was at Mugello when he became the only rider so far to win a Moto2 race from pole.
• Second on the grid, Ratthapark Wilairot, has qualified on the front row for just the second time in his GP career. His previous front row start was third on the grid at the final 250cc race of last year in Valencia.
• Although declared unfit to race, Alex Debon’s third on the grid, equals his previous best qualifying performance of the year.
• Shoya Tomizawa suffered a high-speed crash last year at Assen on the very first lap, after losing his front brake lever in a first-corner collision.
• Following his second place finish at Silverstone, Thomas Luthi will be aiming to score back-to-back podiums for the first time since his 125cc championship winning year of 2005.
• Toni Elias and Sergio Gadea are the only two riders in the Moto2 class who have scored points at all of the first five races.
125cc GP
• Spanish riders have won the last fifteen Grand Prix races in the 125cc class, which equals the longest ever sequence of 125cc GP wins previously achieved by a single nation – by Italian riders over the 1955/56/57 seasons.
• Derbi riders have won the last four races in the 125cc race. If a Derbi rider wins at Assen then it will equal their longest ever run of successive 125 cc GP wins which was achieved in 1988.
• Marc Marquez starts from pole for the fourth time in 2010. If he takes the race win he will be the second youngest rider after Marco Melandri to win three successive GP races.
• Bradley Smith starts from the front row for the third successive race. Smith will be aiming to be the first British rider to win a 125cc race at the Dutch TT since Dave Simmonds took the victory in 1969 riding a Kawasaki.
• Third place on the grid is, Nico Terol, who has finished in the top four at every one of the first five races of the year.
• Pol Espargaro is fourth on the grid, his worst qualifying result so far in 2010.
• Home rider Jasper Iwema is a career best sixth place on the grid, which is the best qualifying result in Grand Prix racing by a Dutch rider since Jurgen van den Goorbergh was fourth on the grid for the 500cc race in Australia in 2002. It is the best qualifying result by a Dutch rider in the 125cc class since Loek Bodelier was 3rd on the grid at the Australian GP in 1993.
