Did you know…?
– Capirossi achieved the first victory for Ducati at the 2003 Catalan GP. It was the first year in MotoGP for Ducati and Montmeló was only the sixth race of the year.
– Casey Stoner won with Ducati at the 2007 GP, the same year he won the World Championship title. He finished ahead of Rossi and Pedrosa, separated by less than 4 tenths of a second.
– With Ducati’s victory in Italy, Dovizioso has climbed to second place in the overall standings. It is the first time that Andrea is second in the provisional championship after the completion of the first third of the season.
– Since taking the title in 2007, Dovizioso’s second place in the provisional World Championship is Ducati’s highest ranking during the first third of the championship.
– Lorenzo has had five victories at Montmeló (2007 in 250cc, and 2010, 2012, 2013 and 2015 in MotoGP). In all of them he crossed the finish line alone.
– Jorge Lorenzo suffered a brutal fall during practice in 2008, in which he repeatedly hit his head, temporarily losing his memory, which prevented him from taking part in the race.
– At Barcelona Dovizioso took the most spectacular victory of his sporting career in 2006 with a single overtaking move on De Angelis and Locatelli on the final lap. In that race, Lorenzo would finish second.
– Montmeló is one of the tracks where Jorge Lorenzo and Andrea Dovizioso have faced off directly the most. They have battled together in 8 of 13 races possible. Out of all of them, the race in 2010 where they both fought for the MotoGP victory is the most significant.
– In the 14 times he has taken part in the Catalan GP, Jorge Lorenzo has qualified on the front row twelve times (4 x pole, 5 x second and 3 x third)
– Last year, Lorenzo did not finish the race because Iannone passed him on the brakes in turn 10, clipping his rear wheel and causing him to crash.
– Montmeló has a new layout. Turn #13 now gives way to a chicane, created before the existing layout for Formula 1 and used last year after the tragic accident in which Luis Salom lost his life. New corners #14 and #15 make the circuit slower, and have been introduced for the same reason that turn #10 (which will be used again this year) was introduced last year: to try to make the track safer.
– This will be the 26th GP to be held at the Circuit de Catalunya. Since it was inaugurated in 1992 for the GPs, it has hosted a World Championship event every year without interruption. Together with Jerez, Assen and Mugello, they are the only tracks that have been in continual use since that year.
– On only one occasion the Catalunya race was held in the rain. That was in 2000 and the victory went to Kenny Roberts Jr. on the Suzuki.
– On 31 occasions the difference between the first and second finishers has been less than one tenth. 13 times in 125cc/Moto3, 10 times in 250cc/Moto2 and 8 occasions in 500cc/MotoGP.
– The last turn of the circuit is so fast that despite not being one of the longest straights of the championship, it allows for speeds higher than 340 km/h
– The strongest braking is performed at the end of the front straight, where riders go from 340 km/h to 101 km/h over a span of 5.1 seconds and over a distance of 285 meters.
– In each lap riders are on the brakes ten times for a total of 30 seconds per lap, whereas a Formula 1 car only uses the brake for 14 seconds.
– The point where the most overtaking occurs is in the braking section at the end of the front straight. The second area is the braking section for turn 10, which for the second consecutive year will be used, and the third is in turn 5.
