Stoner vs. Gardner vs. Doohan.

Victory last time out in Turkey has moved Casey Stoner back to the top of the MotoGP World Championship standings, after the opening three rounds of the 2007 season.

It is interesting to compare Stoner's performance, after having now started 19 premier-class races, to the two previous Australian premier-class world champions Mick Doohan and Wayne Gardner.

Unlike Stoner, both of former champions went straight to racing in the premier-class without graduating through the smaller GP classes. However both had a considerable amount of experience racing Superbikes and, in the case of Gardner, the 500cc two-stroke in British National Championship. In addition both were a few years older than 21-year-old Stoner when making their premier-class debut, at the age of 23.

The following table compares the performances of the two 500cc world champions in their first 19 races against what Stoner has achieved so far.

It can be seen that neither 1987 champion Gardner nor five-times champion Doohan won during the first 19 races of their premier-class career; Gardner won on his 20th start and Doohan on his 26th. However, Stoner has been less consistent, having crashed six times and taken less podiums than his predecessors.

In terms of the total points scored in the 19 races (with points adjusted to the current system) Stoner has scored exactly the same number as Gardner, with Doohan just slightly less.

The figures indicate that, at this early point in his MotoGP career, Stoner is a match for the two former champions, but the final measure will be finding the consistency to go on and take the world title.

Results after first 19 races in premier-class:

Stoner: 2 (wins) 1st (best finish) 3 (podiums) 1 (poles) 6 (falls) 180 (points)Gardner: 0 (wins) 2nd (best finish) 6 (podiums) 0 (poles) 1 (falls) 180 (points)Doohan: 0 (wins) 2nd (best finish) 4 (podiums) 1 (poles) 3 (falls) 164 (points)