Repsol Honda racks up 100 premier class victories

On March 26th, 1995, the Motorcycling World Championship season started with the arrival of a new sponsor in the premier category - Repsol. The Repsol livery graced the trio of NSR 500s of the Honda Team, ridden by Alex Criville, Mick Doohan and Shinichi Itoh. In his first race in Repsol colours, Doohan inaugurated the new livery and the collaboration of the two big international companies in the best way, achieving the first of 35 victories for one of the most solid and successful partners of the Motorcycling World Championship.

16 years later, Casey Stoner achieved Repsol's 100th victory in the Motorcycling World Championship at the Aragón Grand Prix. The milestone confirms this long-lived pair of Repsol and Honda as one of the most important and successful teams of Motorcycling history. The Australian adds the Aragon triumph to the list of successes achieved by great riders such as Mick Doohan, Valentino Rossi and Álex Crivillé.

It has been 16 years in which the Spanish energy company and the Japanese motorcycling brand have built a relationship which translated into eight World Championship titles in the premier category, achieving international recognition.

That win for Doohan in 1995 was followed by another 34 for the Australian. It was a Spaniard, Álex Crivillé, who took over when Doohan retired, going on to become 500cc World Champion in 1999. With his progression to MotoGP, Valentino Rossi showed again the strength of the Repsol Honda Team by achieving 20 wins and 2 World Championship titles, followed by the one achieved by Nicky Hayden in 2006.

The same year was also the debut of Dani Pedrosa who, together with Andrea Dovizioso and Casey Stoner, is part of the most powerful line-up of this year's World Championship.

With Stoner's victory, the Repsol Honda Team has won ten of the fourteen rounds already held this season, thus following the victorious path the Spanish company and the Japanese constructor started in the mid 1990s. Today, the Repsol Honda Team is the most successful in the modern World Championship era.