CHRIS Walker made racing history in the opening round of the World Superbike season by achieving the first podium finish on the Petronas FP1.

In his first race for Carl Fogarty's Foggy Petronas Racing team, the popular British rider finished third in a nerve-jangling first race of the World Superbike season at Valencia, Spain.

Lying fourth with two laps remaining, Walker moved into the rostrum positions when the Ducati of Steve Martin blew an engine. With oil coming out of the Ducati, Chris guided his FP1 home to rapturous celebrations his team.

In race two, Walker came home in seventh spot.

The results left Petronas, Malaysia's oil and gas giant, in second place in the manufacturers' standings behind Ducati, who achieved two wins with James Toseland and Noriyuki Haga.

And the performance of his new rider thrilled team owner Fogarty, the four-times World Superbike champion.

Fogarty said: "It has been a brilliant weekend for us and I never dreamed that we would be celebrating a podium position here. Maybe it will make a few people sit up and take notice and we will soon know exactly what this bike is capable of, with developments to the engine expected within a few rounds.

"It has been especially good for Chris and we were not a million miles off the pace in the second race in dry conditions. We can't argue with seventh place, and nearly having both riders in the top ten, at this stage of the development. Maybe Troy Corser was a little too anxious to get to the front in the first race and it's strange to be saying that so early in the season."

The second race was less dramatic than the opening action, with the morning's rain having disappeared. Pre-race favourite Regis Laconi failed to complete the opening lap for the second time in the day when he suffered engine failure and Walker managed to fight off a late challenge from the Kawasaki of Marco Borciani to clinch nine more points and finish the first round fourth in the rider standings.

Walker said: "I don't think we could have done a better job this weekend and that's a credit to Petronas, to Carl and to the whole team.

"To be on the podium in the first race was more than I could have hoped for.

"In the second race I got a good start, which I was desperate to do, and although I was not as high as I wanted to be I was still in the pack. It took a while to get my head down and then I concentrated on consistent laps.

"The bike ran really well and the Pirelli tyres worked well."

It was a less pleasing story for team-mate Corser, who crashed out of the first race while challenging for second place and finished the second race in 11th.