Le Mans racing numbers

800 – The French Grand Prix will be the 800th Grand Prix event counting towards the world championship classification.

100 – Dani Pedrosa’s third place finish at Estoril was the 100th time he has stood on a Grand Prix podium. He is the seventh rider to reach the milestone of 100 Grand Prix podiums, joining: Valentino Rossi, Giacomo Agostini, Angel Nieto, Phil Read, Mike Hailwood and Max Biaggi.

70 points – After winning twice and finishing second once, Marc Marquez has 70 points more this year than he did at the same stage last season when he failed to score points in any of the first three races.

55 years – On qualifying day at Le Mans it will be exactly 55 years ago since Libero Liberati riding a Gilera won the 1957 German Grand Prix at Hockenheim. This was the first time that a Grand Prix race had been won at an average speed greater than 200 km/h.

39 years – Race day at Le Mans will mark exactly 39 years to the day since both Jarno Saarinen and Renzo Pasolini tragically lost their lives in a crash on the first lap of the 1973 250cc GP at Monza.

37 points – Cal Crutchlow has taken 37 points from the first three MotoGP races of the year. This is the best start to a season for a British rider in the premier-class of Grand Prix racing since Niall Mackenzie started the 1988 season with fourth in the opening race in Japan followed by third at Laguna Seca and fifth in the third race of the year at Jerez.

26 seconds – The gap between Valentino Rossi, in seventh place, and winner Casey Stoner at the Portuguese Grand Prix. This is the closest any Ducati rider has finished to the race winner since Rossi finished 7th at Misano last year, 23 seconds behind race winner Jorge Lorenzo.

25 points – Following the opening three races of 2012, Casey Stoner has scored 25 points more than he had at the same stage last year.

19 – Marc Marquez’s victory at the Portuguese Grand Prix was the 19th of his career. This makes him, at just 19 years old, the sixth most successful Spanish rider of all time in terms of Grand Prix victories, level with Ricardo Tormo. One more GP win will make him level with Alex Criville on 20 GP wins. The only Spanish riders with more than 20 GP wins are: Angel Nieto (90), Jorge Lorenzo (39), Dani Pedrosa (38) and Jorge Martinez (37).

11 – Illustrating the high level of competition in the Moto2 class, the first eleven riders across the line in Portugal were all previous Grand Prix winners.

9 years – With his victory at the Portuguese Grand Prix, Sandro Cortese moves to the head of the world championship standing for the first time in his career. It is nine years since a German rider headed the championship classification in the lightweight class of Grand Prix racing; Steve Jenkner after the third race of the 2003 season at Jerez.

4 – Zulfahmi Khairuddin’s fourth place finish in the Moto3 race in Portugal is the best ever result for a Malaysian rider in Grand Prix racing.