Find out the 10 things you definitely need to know ahead of the second round of the season at Chang International Circuit
- All the eight races run so far in Buriram have been won by British riders, 6 by Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK), 1 by Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) and 1 by Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati).
2. In Buriram Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) is in the position to become the first rookie with a string of three wins in his first three races in WorldSBK.
3. Leon Haslam (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) is set for his 220th WorldSBK race at Chang International Circuit (Race One): he is the 7th rider to reach this goal and his next target is Aaron Slight at 229 starts in the series.
4. Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) always qualified on the front row in Buriram, as he took three poles and a third in 2016.
5. Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) has never finished lower than fourth here, winning six times out of eight: his only race outside the podium was the second one last year (4th).
6. Chang International Circuit is one of the two tracks on the current calendar where Sykes has not recorded pole, the other being San Juan where WorldSBK raced only last year.
7. Chang International Circuit is the only track on the current calendar where Ducati has not claimed a pole position in qualifying.
8. Chang International Circuit is one of the two tracks in the current calendar where an Italian rider has never won, the other being San Juan (only one race weekend in the latter).
9. Kawasaki’s podium tally here, 12, is exactly the sum of their rivals (Ducati 6, Aprilia and Yamaha 2, Suzuki and Honda 1).
10. Last year the pole position was decided by only 0.003 seconds. The gap separating Sykes from poleman Rea is the fourth smallest margin for a pole after Kyalami 2009, 0.001 (Spies/Fabrizio); Algarve 2013, 0.001 (Sykes/Laverty); Sugo 1997, 0.002 (Yanagawa/Yoshikawa).
