Davide Giugliano
• 5th career pole: he has now reached the third spot of Max Biaggi for most poles by an Italian rider. Frankie Chili is the Italian rider with most poles at 10, followed by Giancarlo Falappa at 8;
• 19th career front row: the same as reigning World Champion Sylvain Guintoli (25th all-time spot);
• keeps his streak of qualifying on the front row running: 6 straight races (since Jerez last year);
• he is only the second rider to put a Ducati on pole here after Troy Bayliss (2008). The last of the four Ducati wins at Portimao came in 2011 (Carlos Checa, race 1);
• scored one of his seven career podiums at this track, last year (2nd in race 2);
• looking for his maiden WorldSBK win: Italy as a nation have won 99 races so far

Tom Sykes
• fourth front row start in Portimao after three poles in the last three years: only his team-mate Rea has started more times from the front here (5);
• he is in the position to enter the top 10 list of riders with most podiums: his tally now is 55, Raymond Roche stands at 57;
• he is in the best position to become the first rider to post a third win in the Algarve. Five riders have won twice here: himself, Troy Bayliss, Max Biaggi, Eugene Laverty, Marco Melandri

Chaz Davies
• back on the front row for the first time since Aragon (2nd): he started from this same position last year;
• after today’s qualifying session, his career and Giugliano’s are perfectly opposite: he counts five wins but no poles, Davide five poles but no wins;
• 8 podiums for Chaz this year, 6 in the last 8 races. With two more podiums he will record his first season with at least 10 podiums and will equal his podium tally of the 2013 and 2014 seasons combined;
• Ducati has two bikes on the front row for the first time since Silverstone 2012. In those races there were three Ducatis in the top 6 just like today: Jakub Smrz was on pole, Sylvain Guintoli was 3rd and Davide Giugliano was 5th

Alex Lowes
• records his second-best grid spot of the year after being third on the grid in Buriram. On that weekend he recorded his only podium finish of the season to date: third in race 2;
• equals the best qualifying performance for a Suzuki rider at this track, achieved by Leon Haslam in 2010

Leon Haslam
• keeps his record of having always qualified in the top 5 this year: he was also 5th on the grid in Imola;
• the last five times he has finished a race, he has always classified fourth;
• this year, when he reached the chequered flag, he has always been classified inside the first four positions, missing out only in the second race at Imola, when he crashed out;
• with one more podium finish he will reach Ruben Xaus and Michel Fabrizio at the 21st all-time spot (35)

And the rest
• Matteo Baiocco recorded his best career grid spot (6th) and also for the first time in his career he will start from the top 10 in back-to-back races (he was 8th in grid in Donington);
• Sylvain Guintoli recorded his best grid spot of the season in 7th, up from the 9th set in Phillip Island, Buriram, Assen and Donington. He is addressing his qualifying record against his team-mate: it was 0-5 after the first five race weekends, It is now 2-0 in the last two. Excluding Jonathan Rea, this is the best Algarve grid spot for Honda since Leon Haslam qualified in fifth, back in 2009;
• the eighth place grid spot is Jonathan Rea’s worst qualifying result since he was tenth last year in Jerez: so far this year he had always qualified in the top 4. From here he will try to extend his best career podium string, now at 13 races. At 14 he will equal the third all-time string (Fogarty 1994: Phillip Island/1 - Salzburgring/2). He is as well targeting Carlos Checa for race wins (23 to 24) and his own team-mate Sykes for podiums (54 to 55)