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Official: The youngest podium ever |
22-year-old Casey Stoner won the inaugural MotoGP night race ahead of 20-year-old rookie Jorge Lorenzo and 22-year-old Dani Pedrosa, resulting in an exact average age of just 21 years and 47 weeks.
That broke the previous record, which had stood for more than 30 years - since the French GP of 1976 was won by 25-year-old Barry Sheene, followed by two riders making their first appearance on a premier-class podium: 20-year-old Johnny Cecotto and 21-year-old Marco Lucchinelli.
The top five youngest podiums ever are listed below:
Average rider age for the five youngest podiums in the premier class:1. 2008/Qatar/Losail
21 years 47 weeks (Stoner/Lorenzo/Pedrosa)
2. 1976/France/Le Mans
22 years 29 weeks (Sheene/Cecotto/Lucchinelli)
3. 1992/Duth TT/Assen
22 years 39 weeks Criville/Kocinski/Barros)
4. 2007/Valencia/Ricardo Tormo
22 years 46 weeks (Pedrosa/Stoner/Hopkins)
5. 2006/Turkey/Istanbul
23 years 0 weeks (Melandri/Stoner/Hayden)
Meanwhile, Lorenzo's second place finish on his MotoGP debut has placed the Fiat Yamaha rider ninth on the list of youngest ever podium finishers in the premier class. Lorenzo was 20 years and 310 days old when he stood on the Losail podium.
Randy Mamola, who took his first 500cc podium at just 19 years and 260 days old, leads the list, while Lorenzo's attendance means that team-mate Valentino Rossi has now been knocked down to eleventh.
The seven-time world champion took his first 500cc podium at the 2000 Spanish Grand Prix, when he was 21 years and 74 days old.
