Who is the youngest rider to win a MotoGP World Championship?

Marc Márquez is the youngest rider to win a MotoGP World Championship.

Márquez secured the premier-class title in 2013, his rookie MotoGP season, riding for the factory Honda team. He was 20 years and 266 days old when he clinched the championship at the Valencia Grand Prix, surpassing Freddie Spencer’s long-standing record from 1983.

His achievement was remarkable because he had only moved up from the Moto2 class after winning that category’s 2012 world title. In 2013 he won six races, took multiple pole positions and consistently fought at the front against Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa. His controlled third-place finish at Valencia was enough to secure the crown.

The wording matters: Márquez is the youngest MotoGP-class champion, not necessarily the youngest world champion across every Grand Prix category. Riders can win 125cc, Moto3, Moto2 or other junior-class titles at younger ages. He also became the youngest premier-class race winner earlier in the same 2013 season.