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WorldSBK.com takes a look at the stats, facts and figures regarding the twelfth and penultimate round of the FIM Superbike World Championship at the Magny-Cours circuit in France.




RIDERS


• Max Biaggi has scored four podium places in Magny Cours, winning last year in race two. Max has the peculiarity of having finished all his French races in the top-6; in the last two editions his worst result was a fourth;
• Leon Camier hasn't enjoyed the same success as Biaggi: he retired twice two years ago with mechanical trouble, starting from a lowly sixteenth spot. Last year he was absent due to injury;
• Last year Jonathan Rea entered the Magny-Cours weekend in poor shape due to the injuries sustained in Imola and, after a twelfth in race one, he decided to withdraw from race two. Arm pump problems marked his 2009 weekend: he was third in race two and went off track in race one while he was running second;
• Carlos Checa has finished all the six races he contested here between third and ninth place: his best result came last year in race one, his only podium in this track;
• Mark Aitchison has raced here both in Supersport and in the Superstock 1000 championship, obtaining in both classes a fifth as best result: in 2007 in Superstock and in 2009 in Supersport;
• Troy Corser has obtained four podiums in Magny-Cours, the last one in 2008, race two (third) and started from pole in 2004 and 2006. Last year a double retirement for mechanical problems marked his only weekend - out of eight contested - in which Troy wasn't able to score points on the French track. Excluding three mechanical failures and a crash, Troy has always finished in the top-10 here;
• Three Supersport races in Magny Cours for Joan Lascorz and one win: in 2009 from Cal Crutchlow and Kenan Sofuoglu;
• Noriyuki Haga is the absolute master of the French track: he has won here no less than five times, more than the double the number of his pursuers, three riders no longer active: Doug Polen, James Toseland and Troy Bayliss, who can count two wins each. Ten podium placements here for him, the highest value for this track, next comes Toseland with six. Noriyuki has climbed onto the podium in six weekends out of seven, missing it only last year, when he was seventh and fifth, his worst results in Magny-Cours: in all the other races he always finished in the top-four, retiring only in 2005, race one, for a crash. Haga at the moment can count two podiums, scored at Imola: he hasn't posted three in a row since the Nurburgring and Imola races of last season;
• Six Superbike races for Roberto Rolfo in Magny Cours: his best weekend was 2007, when he finished tenth and seventh, while he scored his best qualifying performances the following year: fifth. The tenth he scored here in race two, 2008, is his last top-10 finish to date;
• Sylvain Guintoli obtained here last year his best career qualifying spot, second. He finished fifth in race one, but was disqualified for not obeying a ride through penalty. He fought back in race two, ending fourth;
• Eugene Laverty won last year's Supersport race from Kenan Sofuoglu and Chaz Davies;
• The best result for Tom Sykes in Magny-Cours is an eighth, scored last year in race one. In the 2009 races he retired for two crashes in the early stages, completing only one lap in race one and three in race two;
• Three retirements for mechanical problems (two in 2004 and one in 2005) and a race dominated with pole, win and fastest laps (race one, 2005): this is the scoreboard for Chris Vermeulen in Magny Cours;
• Only one podium finish out of ten starts for Michel Fabrizio, third last year in race two. He started from pole and finished third in the 2005 Supersport race. He was on pole also in the 2003 Superstock 1000 race, finishing fourth;
• In his amazing 2010 Superstock 1000 season, Ayrton Badovini scored nine wins out of ten races, with only one blot on his copybook: Magny Cours, the only race he didn't win, finishing second to Maxime Berger. He was sixteenth and seventeenth in the 2008 Superbike races;
• Excluding a mechanical problem which sidelined him in the first 2009 race, Leon Haslam has always finished in the top-10 in Magny Cours, obtaining his best and worst results last year: second in race one and tenth in race two. He always qualified in the top-10 spots here;
• Four retirements and four races completed for Jakub Smrz in Magny Cours: his best results came last year: third in grid, he finished the races in fifth and sixth;
• Second and winner in the two 2003 races, Ruben Xaus afterwards has never managed a podium finish. His worst results came in the last two seasons: twelfth and eleventh in the 2009 races, last year he fell after a couple of laps in race one and decided to withdraw from race two;
• Excellent performances for Maxime Berger in his home track: last year he was the only rider able to steal a win from Ayrton Badovini all-season long in the Superstock 1000 class, winning from pole; he won here also the year before in the same championship. Maxime was able to win also in the Superstock 600 class in 2007 and finished on the podium in the 2005 one.





TEAMS




• The best results for Aprilia in this track came from Max Biaggi: one win in race two last year and two podiums in the 2009 edition;
• The best result for BMW in Magny Cours is a ninth scored by Troy Corser in the first 2009 race. Last year there were no BMWs classified in both races;
• Ducati are the most successful team here with ten wins: they didn't record one only in 2007 and last year and missed the podium only twice out of eighteen races. The only Ducati pole here came in 2003 and was scored by James Toseland, at his maiden career pole;
• The last win for Honda here dates back 2006, race one (Toseland), last year they weren't able to finish in the top-10;
• Kawasaki have never won here: last year they managed a top-10 finish thanks to Tom Sykes after a long gap that started after Fonsi Nieto's podium in race two, 2007;
• A jinxed track for Suzuki, who have never won in Magny Cours, finishing second a total of six times;
• Yamaha started winning here in 2007 with a double: since then they are the most successful team. In the last eight races they have won five times, missing the podium only in 2009, race two. Yamaha scored poles in the last three editions of the race.



Source: World Superbike

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