While most children his age are still learning how to master the use of cutlery, a nine-year-old boy from Singapore finished second place in an international karting race in Valencia, Spain over one weekend in February.

The young racer, Tiziano Monza (pictured left below), in effect, has written a tiny piece of Singapore sports history by being the first-ever racer representing the Republic in this sport to end up on a podium in Europe.

A quick highlight of the 2019 IAME Wintercup in Valencia, which took place over Feb. 9 and 10, 2019, can be viewed here:

The IAME Wintercup is a professional international karting race that brings together competitors from all over the world.

Why is Valencia race tough?

According to Tiziano's father, Andre Monza, his son only had one day to test drive around the track.

Tiziano effectively had to memorise the course on Thursday, before proceeding to qualifying races on Friday.

The other teams, on the other hand, had the weekend to prepare themselves, Monza senior said, adding that the track is "challenging".

Monza père said: "The track in Valencia is extremely technical, it has many difficult corner sequences where a mistake at the exit of one turn can result in a very bad lap time because the next section of the track is now compromised."

He also said the qualifying time that differentiates the winners and qualifiers from the rest can be down to one-tenth of a second each time.

The race is also a test of the young one's mental agility and maturity.

Tiziano has to relay to his adult racing team engineers the track conditions and how the kart behaves in every phase of a lap, as well as read his competitors.

A kart can exceed 100kmh on the track during races.

How his race went?

Tiziano literally raced his way from a less-than-ideal position to the top.

He finished 13th position in the qualifying round and started out in 10th position in the semi-finals, where he then came in third place -- which is his starting position for the finals.

In the 10-lap finals, he managed two crucial overtakes on the last lap and the final pass on the last corner that earned him a second place podium finish.

After the race, the top three finishers celebrated with kids champagne:

Racing against much older children

And if Tiziano looks physically less imposing than his peers on the podium, that is because he is much younger.

The age class that Tiziano races in is from the age of eight to 13.

Most of the kids that are most competitive in karting are 11 or 12 years old.

In karting jargon, that is the age the racers peak in their Cadet performance, before moving up to the Junior class.

Tiziano has so far achieved well over 40 podium finishes -- where podium in Asia is for the top five drivers, and in Europe its for the top three.

Previous achievements

This latest 2019 achievement is Tiziano's most successful race in his career so far.

Previously, Tiziano competed in the 2018 IAME World Finals in Le Mans, France.

He finished in 11th place out of 75 global contestants, and was ranked the highest classified Asian driver.

Despite his tender age of nine, Tiziano has been racing for more than four years.

Tiziano is currently supported by the Kart Republic Factory Team in Italy.

It is owned by karting legend Dino Chiesa, the man who brought up Lewis Hamiliton and Nico Rosberg during their karting years.

Tiziano is sponsored and supported by Auto Inc Racing in Singapore.

You can watch the full IAME Wintercup race with Tiziano from the 3-hour 30-minute mark here.