Facts & Figures from Portimao

• Max Biaggi managed to climb on the podium only once out of four starts, in race one in 2009 (third);
• in both races run here Shane Byrne finished fourth;
• the best result for Carlos Checa is a second place in his first race run here in 2008;
• also for Troy Corser the best result came in the first race of 2008: third;
• Michel Fabrizio is the only active rider who has won in Portimao. The Italian won in race two last year, while in 2008 both races went to Troy Bayliss and the first one of 2009 to Ben Spies. Michel posted the fastest lap in both 2009 races and is the rider which scored the highest amount of points in Portimao: 56;
• Noriyuki Haga only climbed on the podium once last year in race two (second);
• Leon Haslam was third in the second 2008 race, while in 2009 he retired twice;
• Vittorio Iannuzzo has never seen the chequered flag in Portimao: four participations and four retirements;
• Andrew Pitt was second in the 2008 Supersport race;
• Jonathan Rea is the only one of the current riders to get on the podium in both last year’s races, in second and third. He is also the only one to have started from the front row both in 2008 and 2009;
• the best result for Jakub Smrz came in the second race of 2009: eighth;
• Makoto Tamada was in the points only once, even if he is the only one among the current riders to have always finished the races run in Portimao. His best result was a twelfth in race one last year;
• Ruben Xaus retired in both the second races, in 2008 and 2009, his best result was an eighth place in race one last year.


PORTIMAO RACE NOTES


• Aprilia climbed on the podium only once with a third from Biaggi last year in race one;
• the best result for BMW was an eighth scored by Xaus in race one in 2009;
• Ducati won three races out of four in Portimao, missing the podium only last year in race one when the winner was Ben Spies (Yamaha);
• Honda is the only manufacturer to have always placed a bike on the podium in the four races run here;
• the best result for Kawasaki is a tenth place, scored in both 2008 races and in 2009, race one;
• Suzuki never climbed on the podium in Portimao and last year in race one none of the Suzukis present made it to the chequered flag;
• Yamaha won last year in race one and was able to climb on the podium only in another occasion, with a third by Corser in race one, 2008;
• the pole position in both editions was posted by the rider crowned champion at the end of the season.

MILESTONES IN PORTUGAL


(Estoril 1988 and 1993, Portimao 2008 and 2009)
• 1988: maiden pole and win for Stèphane Mertens, maiden fastest lap for Raymond Roche;
• 1993: maiden fastest lap for Simon Crafar;
• 2008: both Cal Crutchlow and Jonathan Rea recorded their maiden start from the front row. Crutchlow was at his second Superbike race, Rea at his maiden one.


SUPERSPORT FLASH NOTES


• in both editions the polesitter won the race;
• Honda won both races and was on the podium five times out of six slots available. The only rider on the podium with a bike different from Honda was Garry McCoy last year: third with the Triumph;
• the only rider able to score podium finishes in both edition was Kenan Sofuoglu, winner of the 2008 edition and second in 2009. Sofuoglu is also the only one who started from the front row twice.


SUPERSTOCK FLASH NOTES


• in the Superstock 1000 championship Ducati won both races, while in the Superstock 600 championship Yamaha won twice;
• like in Supersport, also in Superstock 600 Yamaha monopolized the podium with five placements out of six available. The only non-Yamaha rider on the podium was Gino Rea with the Honda in last year’s edition.

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