Valentino Rossi had made the jump to 500cc four months earlier. The Italian arrived at the age of 21 as the great promise of the moment, having won the 125cc (1997) and 250cc (1999) titles, and he also did so with the full support of Honda , which had won the last six championships, and inheriting recently retired Mick Doohan ‘s team.
Il Dottore – who was still nicknamed Valentinik at the time – had a bittersweet debut in the premier class. In his first race, in Welkom (South Africa) he crashed. He also did not score in the second (Malaysia). After the halfway point of the 2000 season, he had already left traces of his talent with podium finishes at Jerez, Le Mans and Montmeló. However, victory eluded him in the first eight Grands Prix.
The Tavullia rider reached the ninth round of the season 58 points off the lead. The idea of trying to win the title had practically vanished and his main objective for the second half of the year was to continue adding experience and renew his record.
And he did that at the British GP at Donington Park. There the usual intermittent rain made its own. Rossi qualified fourth on the grid, but a poor start dropped him to 13th in the opening laps.
From there, the #46 began a frantic comeback. One after another he passed rivals until he hunted down Jeremy McWilliams, who was chasing the leader, Kenny Roberts Jr. The Italian passed the Briton with half of the 30 laps to go. The Aprilia man hooked onto the NSR’s wheel and together they went after the Californian.
With 13 laps to go, a leading trio formed with McWilliams taking the lead and Rossi moving into second place. Roberts did not get into trouble and took the podium for granted, which was going very well for him for the championship. Not so Rossi, who with less than 5 laps to go overtook #99 and headed straight for victory.
Finally, Roberts overtook McWilliams and crossed the finish line in second position, 0.395s behind Rossi, who thus achieved the first of his 89 victories in 500cc/MotoGP.
All the victories of Valentino Rossi in 500cc/MotoGP
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Photo by: Bridgestone Corporation
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Photo by: Yamaha Motor Racing
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Photo by: Yamaha MotoGP
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Photo by: Yamaha MotoGP
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Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
