MotoGP Sunday guide

- Four different riders have won the first four races of the year. This has only happened in the premier-class on four previous occasions – 1949, 1974, 1989 and 2006. Only in 1974 and 1989 did this stretch to five different riders in the first five races. In 1974 the fifth race was the Isle of Man TT that most top riders did not attend and was won by Phil Carpenter. In 1989 the fifth race was the Italian GP at Misano which was boycotted by the majority of riders for safety reasons and won by Pier Francesco Chili.

- Dani Pedrosa starts from pole for the first time since the final race of 2007 at Valencia. This is also the first pole of 2008 for Honda. Pedrosa has finished on the podium at the last six successive races.

- If Pedrosa wins the race he will become the first rider to win in all three current classes at the Le Mans circuit.

- Colin Edwards will be starting from the front row for the fourth time in 2008. Edwards finished third at Le Mans in 2005 – his first podium on the Yamaha.

- Casey Stoner, who will be making his 100th Grand Prix start, has scored points in all twenty-two races since he joined the Ducati team at the start of last year.

- Valentino Rossi needs just one more victory to equal the 90 GP wins achieved by Angel Nieto. Rossi will be aiming to take back-to-back victories for the first time since he won the Italian and Catalan Grand Prix in 2006.

- Jorge Lorenzo starts from his lowest grid position of the year. If Lorenzo finishes on the podium he will have achieved the highest ever point score after five races in a debut season in the premier-class, taking this honour from Max Biaggi.

- Nicky Hayden will be aiming to finish on the podium for the first time since he was third at the Czech GP last year.

- Chris Vermeulen´s win last year was the first victory for Suzuki since the introduction of the four-stroke MotoGP machines at the start of 2002. It was also the first wet weather victory in the MotoGP class for a rider using Bridgestone tyres.