Portimao – The Pre-round statistics
WorldSBK.com provides you with some interesting statistics ahead of the Portuguese Round of eni FIM Superbike World Championhip.
Two podium out of eight races for Sylvain Guintoli in Portimao: second in race one in 2011, overtook by Checa three laps to the end, and third last year in race one, again overtook by Checa, who stole second from him on the twelfth lap. Sylvain debuted in WSBK here in 2009.
Tom Sykes won from pole race one last year, while in race two his engine failed when he was running third. These are the only races where Tom hit the headlights in Portimao so far.
Eugene Laverty climbed on the podium last year and two years ago in Portimao: he was second in race two in 2011, overtook by Melandri, his team mate at the time, three laps to the end and won last year in race two. In both race weekends run here Eugene started from third in grid.
Marco Melandri was able to win here in 2011 in race two, overtaking his team-mate Laverty three laps to the end. A weekend to forget last year: he fell in race one and had to withdraw from race two due to the injuries sustained.
An extremely disappointing weekend for Chaz Davies in Algarve last year: in race one he was unable to avoid Melandri's bike, right in front of him, while in race two he fell while he was second. In 2011 he won the Supersport race from Salom and Ellison, leading from lights to flag.
Six podiums out of ten races run here for Jonathan Rea in Algarve: third and second in 2009, third in race two in 2010 and in both races in 2011 and again second in race two last year. He is the rider with most podiums in this track, followed by Biaggi (Rea debuted in the Championship here in 2008, qualifying third and finishing fourth in race one).
Michel Fabrizio won race two in 2009 and was second in race two in 2008.
Davide Giugliano debuted in the World Superbike championship here two years ago, scoring his maiden points in race two with a twelfth.
Jules Cluzel was last year's winner in the Supersport class: he was able to beat by a small margin the two Kawasakis of Kenan Sofuoglu and Fabien Foret.
The best results for Leon Camier in Portimao came in 2010 when he was twice fifth, but his best race performance came last year, when he fought all the way with Biaggi for third up to the last lap of race two, when he suffered a mechanical failure.
Carlos Checa won here in 2011 and was second in race one in 2008, fighting with Corser and Haga, and in race one last year, when he surrendered only to Tom Sykes. Apart from a retirement (2009 Race 2) he never finished lower than seventh. In the last three years, with Ducati, he has always started from the front row here.
Three podiums out of ten races run for Leon Haslam: third in race two in 2008, he was second in both races in 2010 behind future world champion Max Biaggi.
