by Tracy Hagen

Statistically, who had the best starts in MotoGP this year? The answer may surprise you.

To find out, I have compared the qualifying order from each race against the running order at the first timing beacon after the start of the race. The first timing beacon is located roughly one-fourth of a lap from the Start line. Typically this point is between Turns 3 and 4 of a race track, but this depends on the design of the race track and other factors. I would prefer a timing beacon at the exit of the first turn, but this will do.

The comparison goes like this: if a rider qualified fifth but was running third at the first beacon, I gave him two points for the two positions he gained. This calculated for all riders and all races, except the Malaysian GP. That race, of course, was canceled following Marco Simoncelli’s fatal crash on the second lap and no official timing and scoring data was released to the MotoGP website.

First, a summary of qualifying.

In 2011 there’s no question that Casey Stoner ruled qualifying. Stoner was on pole in 12 of the 18 races, and on the front row in all but one race (Stoner qualified fourth at Estoril).

The remaining six pole positions were spread equally between Jorge Lorenzo, Dani Pedrosa, and Simoncelli. Pedrosa missed three qualifying sessions in 2011, Lorenzo missed two, and, obviously, Simoncelli missed the final event. Given these absences I’d give the tie-breaker to Pedrosa as the second-best qualifier in MotoGP in 2011.

The riders that were most often on the front row were Stoner, Lorenzo, and Pedrosa.

The riders most often on the second row were Simoncelli, Ben Spies, and Andrea Dovisioso.

The riders most often on the third row were Colin Edwards, Nicky Hayden, Alvaro Bautista, and Valentino Rossi.

The riders most often on the fourth row were Cal Crutchlow, Hector Barbera, Randy De Puniet, and Hiroshi Aoyama.

Karel Abraham and Loris Capirossi were most often on the fifth row, while Toni Elias was most often on the sixth row. Abraham, however, once qualified on the second row, at Silverstone.

The wildcard riders, without exception, qualified at the bottom of the order.

Now we will take a look at running orders at the first timing beacon. Here, the results are not as lopsided as they were in qualifying.

There were three riders – Casey Stoner, Dani Pedrosa, and Jorge Lorenzo – that led through the first timing beacon a total of five times in 2011. Ben Spies led the other two times (the results from the Malaysian round are not included due to the timing data being unreleased).

As far as riders that converted pole position into a holeshot, Stoner was successful five times. Lorenzo was successful twice and Pedrosa once.

Recall that Toni Elias had the futility award in qualifying amongst the regular riders? Not so at the first timing beacon, as Elias was consistently ahead of other riders. Karel Abraham was usually the last of the full-time riders at the first beacon.

In our last segment we take a look at how many positions were gained or lost from the start to the first timing beacon.

On this metric we have a tie for top honors with Josh Hayes and Katsuyuki Nakasaga with an average of six positions gained at the start of a race. Of course, there’s a few “yeah, but” remarks to go with this statistic. They only raced one event, and at that event four riders crashed in the first turn (and who knows how many others checked up to avoid crashing themselves).

Of the full time riders, Toni Elias had the best starts. It’s easy to dismiss this as a consequence of starting from the last row. Nonetheless, in three events in 2011 Elias made up nine positions – three rows of riders – at the start of the race. On average, Elias passed more than four riders on every start.

Among the factory riders, the one with the best starts was Nicky Hayden. On average Hayden made up 1.5 positions at each start.

Casey Stoner, with 12 pole positions, had an average loss of 0.7 positions at the start. Stoner’s worst starts only cost him two positions – not bad.

Among the factory riders, the one with the worst starts was Ben Spies. On average Spies lost 2.2 positions on each start. Spies had one race where he gained two positions (Aragon), though in that race Andrea Dovisioso crashed in the second turn.