Cal Crutchlow: History maker

Cal Crutchlow finally ended the UK's 35-year wait for a new 500cc/MotoGP race winner, last time out at Brno.

Prior to Crutchlow's triumph, the last British rider to win a premier-class grand prix was Barry Sheene at the 500cc Swedish Grand Prix on 16th August 1981.

Official MotoGP statistics also reveal:

o 'Sheene's win in Sweden was the 300th 500cc race that had taken place and was the 138th premier-class victory for British riders. Since Sheene's win, there had been 532 successive premier-class races without a British winner before Crutchlow in the Czech Republic.
o 'At the age of 30 years 297 days Crutchlow is the oldest rider to take his maiden win in the MotoGP class since Troy Bayliss at the final race of 2006 in Valencia.
o 'Crutchlow is the first British rider to win a premier-class GP riding a Honda since Mike Hailwood won the Canadian 500cc Grand Prix in 1967.
o 'The win at Brno was the 10th MotoGP podium for Crutchlow, which is the greatest number of premier-class podium finishes for any British rider since Barry Sheene.
o 'Crutchlow is just the sixth rider to win a MotoGP race having never competed full-time in any of the smaller classes of grand prix racing, joining: Nicky Hayden, Makoto Tamada, Troy Bayliss, Chris Vermeulen and Ben Spies.
o 'Crutchlow is the 17th rider to win a race in both the premier-class of grand prix racing and the WSBK championship.'

On the same day as Crutchlow's historic MotoGP win, countryman John McPhee took his maiden victory in the Moto3 class, with fellow Briton Sam Lowes on the podium in Moto2:

o 'It was only the second time since 1977 that two British riders have won solo grand prix races on the same day - the other occasion was at Austin last year when Sam Lowes won in Moto2 and Danny Kent in Moto3.
o 'It is the first time since 1976 that two British riders have taken their maiden grand prix victory in the same season.
o 'British riders have now won a race in each of the three classes this year. The last time that British riders won at least one races in the equivalent of the three current classes in the same season was 1973, when Phil Read won four times in the 500cc class, Charlie Williams won in the 250cc class and both Chas Mortimer and Tommy Robb won one race each in the 125cc class.
o 'With Sam Lowes finishing third in the Brno Moto2 race it is only the second time since 1978 that Britain had at least one podium finisher in all three classes on the same day - the other time was in Argentina last year.
o 'It is the first time since 1976 that Britain has had three different grand prix winners in a single season.'