This weekend, the sixth round of the Grand Prix calendar is for the Mugello track which will receive the Italian Grand Prix. The best transalpine riders like the manufacturers of the peninsula will be keen to shine in front of their compatriots and will want to defeat the Spanish armada, even if it has a gifted rider on a Japanese motorcycle as its figurehead. Will the Italians achieve their goals? To think about it, here are some figures which give interesting indications…
Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom are the only three countries to have organized a motorcycle Grand Prix every year since the start of the motorcycling world championship in 1949. This Sunday will be the 34th time that a Grand Prix takes place on the Mugello circuit, including 28 consecutive times since 1991. Mugello hosted a Grand Prix for the first time in 1976. The 500cc race was won by Barry Sheene with a tiny advance of 0,1 second on Phil Read, in a race lasting more than 62 minutes.
The layout of the Mugello circuit has remained virtually the same since 1976, with the official track length of 5,245 km remaining unchanged. In total, 105 motorcycle races have been organized on the Mugello circuit since 1976: MotoGP – 17, 500cc – 16, Moto2 – 9, 350cc – 2, 250cc – 24, Moto3 – 7, 125cc – 25, 80cc – 2, 50cc – 3.
Misano is the only other circuit to have hosted the Italian Grand Prix in 1991 and 1993. The Mugello circuit has also hosted the Grand Prix of Nations (1976, 1978 and 1985) and the San Marino Grand Prix (1982, 1984, 1991 and 1993).
Honda is the most successful manufacturer with 16 premier class victories, most recently in 2014 with Marc Márquez.
Yamaha has achieved 12 victories in the premier class, notably with Kenny roberts (1978) et Wayne Rainey (1991) on 500 cc machines, then five successive victories with Valentino Rossi from 2004 to 2008 and five victories with Jorge Lorenzo in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2015 and 2016.
Last year, Jorge Lorenzo gave Ducati its third MotoGP victory at Mugello, after Casey Stoner and in 2009 Andrea Dovizioso in 2017. The latter then became the first Italian rider to win victory in the premier category in Italy on an Italian motorcycle.
The best result for Suzuki in the MotoGP era is a fourth place, achieved by Andrea Iannone Last year. Before that, Suzuki achieved success twice at Mugello in the premier category, with Barry Sheene (1976) et Kevin schwantz (1992)
MotoGP victories at Mugello since the introduction of this category as the premier Grand Prix discipline are shared by only six riders: Valentino Rossi (7 victories), Jorge Lorenzo (6 victories), and Dani Pedrosa, Casey Stoner, Marc Márquez et Andrea Dovizioso all have a victory at Mugello.
As for the intermediate categories, we note that the nine Moto2 races which took place at Mugello were won by seven different riders: Andrea Iannone (2010 and 2012), Marc Márquez (2011) Scott Redding (2013) Tito Rabat (2014 and 2015), Johann zarco ( 2016) Mattia Pasini (2017) et Miguel Oliveira (2018)
The seven Moto3 races that took place at Mugello were won by seven different riders: Maverick Vinales, louis salom, Romano Fenati, Miguel Oliveira, Brad Binder, Andrea Migno and George Martin. Only two of them were won by non-KTM riders: Maverick Vinales (FTR Honda – 2012) and George Martin (Honda – 2018).
