2014 Aragon World Superbike Post-Race Stats

2014 Aragon World Superbike Post-Race Stats
Kawasaki Racing Team's Tom Sykes leads teammate Loris Baz and Pata Honda World Superbike's Jonathan Rea
2014 Aragon World Superbike Post-Race Stats
Kawasaki Racing Team’s Tom Sykes leads teammate Loris Baz and Pata Honda World Superbike’s Jonathan Rea

2014 World Superbike Statistics

Last weekend, the second round of the 2014 World Superbike Championship took place at Motorland Aragon in Spain.

And the double header was dominated by Kawasaki ZX-10R Ninja machinery. The reigning World Superbike Champion, the man who finished 7-3 at the Phillip Island Season opener, doubled at Aragon SBK. But it wasn’t only the Brit’s ZX-10R on the podium; in both races, Sykes’ teammate Loris Baz also finished second making for a Kawasaki 1-2 in each Aragon race.

When Aragon wrapped up, it was the fourth and fifth time that Kawasaki took 1-2 spots in the series since its inception in 1988. The last time Kawasaki finished 1-2 was in 1993 with Scott Russell and Aaron Slight on Kawasaki Muzzy Team ZXR750s.

Also, until Aragon, the last team to double in both races was last year’s Phillip Island round when Sylvain Guintoli and Eugene Laverty finished 1-2 in both races.

Stats like these garner much interest for World Superbike fans. Following are some other post-race stats from Aragon World Superbike courtesy of World SBK:

  • In both races Tom Sykes won leading from lights to flag: he was able to do this in twelve of his sixteen wins. Since lap data is available (1998) no one else was able to record so many wins leading all the way: Sykes’ best rival is Troy Corser, with ten wins leading all laps.
  • Tom Sykes after Aragon counts sixteen wins: the same of Giancarlo Falappa, Neil Hodgson and James Toseland, at the eleventh all-time spot.
  • For the first time in his career, Loris Baz nailed three consecutive podiums, as he always finished second in his last three races.
  • Jonathan Rea scored his 34th podium, the first since last year’s first race in Silverstone, when he won. This was his first podium in Aragon: in his career he climbed on the podium in twelve different tracks. This was also the first podium placement for Honda in Aragon.
  • In race two Marco Melandri scored his 40th podium, reaching Doug Polen at the 15th all-time spot.
  • A complete sweep (pole, double win, double fastest lap, all the laps in the lead) by Kawasaki was prevented only by Chaz Davies, which recorded his fifth career fastest lap in race two.
  • In race one there were no Aprilias on the podium for the first time after eleven straight races (the sequence had started at the second Nurburgring race, last year).
  • After eight races in Aragon, there are only four winners: Max Biaggi, Marco Melandri, Chaz Davies and Tom Sykes, with two wins each. Therefore only Italian (2011 and 2012) and British (2013 and 2014) riders won here.

2014 Aragon World Superbike Qualifying Stats:

  • Tom Sykes recorded his 20th pole, and now he is only one pole shy of the third all-time spot, held by Carl Fogarty (21).
  • Best career result and first front row appearance for Loris Baz in second: at 21 years, 2 months and 12 days he became the sixth youngest rider in history to start from the front row. The record is held by Yuichi Takeda, who was only 18 years old when he dominated the first 1996 race in Sugo.
  • Loris Baz was the first Kawasaki rider other than Tom Sykes to start from the front row since 2007, when Regis Laconi managed two front-row starts and Fonsi Nieto one.
  • Taking the first and second place in grid was a major achievement for Kawasaki, which didn’t record a similar feat since the 2007 Lausitzring race, when Fonsi Nieto and Regis Laconi took the first two grid spots, albeit on a wet qualifying session. To find another 1-2 in grid for Kawasaki we have to go back to Hockenheim 1997, when Simon Crafar scored pole and Akira Yanagawa was second.
  • For Jonathan Rea this was the 30th straight qualifying session in the top-10: the last time he missed out was in Misano, 2011. In Aragon Jonathan raced for the 120th time with Honda: he is the third rider with most presences for the Japanese manufacturer, behind Aaron Slight (163) and Colin Edwards (127).

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