Assen MotoGP Saturday Guide

Saturday, 28 June 2008

The key statistics ahead of Saturday afternoon´s MotoGP contest in the Netherlands.

- Casey Stoner starts from pole for the third successive race. He will be aiming for his first victory in any class at Assen. A win for Stoner would also be the first victory in MotoGP at the Dutch track for both Ducati and Bridgestone.

- Stoner´s pole position is the fastest ever lap of Assen by a motorcycle. The top six riders on the grid have lapped faster than the previous pole record set by John Hopkins in 2006.

- Michelin riders have won the last sixteen premier-class races at Assen. The last non-Michelin win was Kevin Schwantz in 1991 riding a Suzuki on Dunlop tyres.

- Dani Pedrosa has been the first Honda rider to cross the line in all of the first eight races of the year.

- Valentino Rossi will be making his 201st successive Grand Prix start to equal the current record of Max Biaggi for successive GP starts across all classes.

- Nicky Hayden won at Assen from fourth on the grid in 2006 – his only GP victory outside of the USA.

- Randy de Puniet´s best finish at the Assen circuit is the fourth place he achieved in the 250cc class in 2004.

- Colin Edwards is starting from his lowest grid position (sixth) so far in 2008.

- Jorge Lorenzo has had three wins at Assen in the smaller classes; the 125cc race in 2004 and the 250cc race for the last two years.

- Chris Vermeulen will be aiming to improve on the previous best result by a Suzuki rider on a four-stroke MotoGP machine at Assen, which was John Hopkins´ fifth place finish last year.

- Shinya Nakano´s second place finish in 2006 in the Netherlands is his best ever MotoGP result.

- Sylvain Guintoli (tenth) will be starting from his best grid position so far in 2008.