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It was a record-breaking opening round of the 2015 MotoGP™ World Championship at the Commercial Bank Grand Prix of Qatar.

The opening MotoGP™ race of the year in Qatar was significant in many ways in terms of records and milestones, and below are the details of the most significant:

• This was the first grand prix event since the Chinese Grand Prix in 2005 that no Spanish riders were on the podium across the three GP classes.

• The last time that none of the three championship tables were headed by a Spanish rider was following the Spanish GP at Jerez in 2009, then the tables were topped by: Valentino Rossi, Hiroshi Aoyama and Andrea Iannone.

• For the first time since the Grand Prix of Valencia in 2011, none of the riders on pole position were from Spain.

• The first all Italian MotoGP podium since the Japanese GP in 2006 at Motegi.

• For the first time since 2003 there was no Spanish rider on the podium at the opening MotoGP race of the year.

• After his win in Qatar Valentino Rossi heads the championship table for the first time since he won the opening race of 2010 in Qatar.

• Valentino Rossi is the oldest rider to head the premier-class world championship table since Jack Findlay had joint-leadership of the 500cc world championship in 1977 with Barry Sheene, after Findlay had won the second race of the year in Austria - a race boycotted by many of the top riders.

• Rossi is the oldest rider to win the opening premier-class grand prix of the year since Harold Daniell won the very first 500cc race counting toward the world championship title back in 1949 at the Isle of Man TT races.

• Ducati had two riders on a MotoGP podium for the first time since the Aragon GP in 2010, when Casey Stoner won the race and Nicky Hayden finished third.

• A non-Spanish rider heads the MotoGP championship table for the first time since Casey Stoner topped the table following his win in Portugal in 2012.

• The last time that the reigning MotoGP champion did not finish on the podium at the opening race of the year was 2007, when the 2006 champion Nicky Hayden finished 8th in Qatar.