Because the paddock heads to France for the fifth spherical of the 2023 season, it should mark a significant milestone on the planet championship’s historical past.
At some of the iconic venues in all of motorsport, Le Mans will play host to the 1000th grand prix occasion in world championship bike racing, which first started again in 1949 on the Isle of Man.
Via that point, much has changed about grand prix motorcycle racing, however the timeline has been plagued by numerous legendary moments.
As a part of Autosport’s 1000th MotoGP celebrations, we requested our writers to pick a few of their favorite races.
Sito Pons gained an exciting 250cc race in opposition to Joan Garriga in Sweden, securing him his first world title
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1988 250cc Swedish Grand Prix: Love at first sight - German Garcia Casanova
Probably the 250cc race of the 1988 Swedish GP just isn’t among the many greatest in historical past by far, however on 14 August, 35 years in the past, I’ll always remember it.
I had heard about Angel Nieto, Ricardo Tormo and Jorge Martinez Aspar, however my curiosity for motorcycling was woke up once I learn that two younger Catalan riders, Sito Pons and Joan Garriga, have been preventing for the 250cc world championship that yr, and that sparks have been flying between them.
That Sunday I sat in entrance of a tv, for the primary time in my life, to look at a motorbike race. The battle between Pons (Honda) and Garriga (Yamaha), was essentially the most intense I had seen till then, passes, overtaking, crossed bikes, open elbows, parallel curves.
Anderstorp was an outdated and rickety circuit that used the runway of an airport as a protracted straight, whereas the twisty space was tight and technical. On the straight, Pons was blasting by Garriga, who was catching him within the corners.
On the penultimate lap, after each have been very shut throughout the entire race, the culminating second arrived: Pons made a transfer on Garriga, the bikes touched, the Yamaha rider went just a little lengthy and the blue Honda with the Campsa colors headed for the end line in quest of what can be, in the long run, the primary 250cc world championship for Pons.
Jorge Lorenzo’s first victory in grand prix racing got here in thrilling circumstances in Brazil in 2003
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2003 125cc Brazilian Grand Prix: The beginnings of a grand prix legend – Alberto Gomez
The Nelson Piquet circuit, bustling with tropical warmth and strange humidity, performed host to a superb 125cc race in 2003.
Among the many riders have been illustrious names like Dani Pedrosa, Alex De Angelis, Andrea Dovizioso and Casey Stoner. As a result of excessive climate situations, it was not attainable to race alone. Slipstreams and the necessity to cool the bikes would have mitigated any loopy journey.
It was a day that may gas a loopy race, Jorge Lorenzo’s 26th within the class. He had entered the championship a yr earlier because the youngest in historical past. Derbi hadn’t gained in two seasons. However there was no stopping the Mallorcan.
In the previous few laps, overtaking came about in a bunch of excellent high quality. The Derbi was not one of the best bike to battle with. Regardless of not having a superb season (he completed sixth), Lorenzo put in the whole lot the purple and inexperienced bike wanted into the race.
On a wild final lap, he pulled off a double overtake on Pedrosa and Stoner on the surface, revealing the braveness of a fearless rider.
Benefiting from slipstreams on the again straight, Lorenzo prevailed in a good and hectic race during which the primary six completed inside zero.089s of one another. Lorenzo revealed his champion genetics to the world, and the favored ‘Por fuera’ was born.
Valentino Rossi’s legend continued in South Africa in 2004 when he gained on his Yamaha debut, months after an acrimonious break up with Honda
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2004 MotoGP South African GP: Rossi proves a degree to his former paymaster - Alberto Gomez
The Welkom circuit 150km outdoors Bloemfontein, dotted with gold mines, opened the 2004 MotoGP season. Valentino Rossi was on monitor prepared for battle and aiming for a brand new title.
The duty wouldn’t be simple. Just a few months earlier, Rossi had determined to depart the HRC manufacturing facility and started, considerably spitefully, a radically completely different story by signing a contract with Honda’s bitter enemy Yamaha.
The Japanese model, which had not gained a championship since 1992, guess the whole lot on the Italian, who reneged on Honda when its high brass declared the bike was extra vital than the rider in feedback that diminished Rossi’s expertise.
Due to that affront and his subsequent departure, 2004 opened with depth and feelings. And South Africa concentrated these feelings in a historic race during which the person from Tavullia got here head to head together with his arch rival Max Biaggi on the Pons-run Honda. The one-on-one between the 2 compatriots was settled by Rossi in a rare remaining lap.
As soon as Rossi had taken the chequered flag, he sat close to the blue M1, kissed its windshield, and devoted just a few phrases of unconditional like to it. Those self same phrases he repeated years later when he left Yamaha for Ducati in 2011.
Rossi’s revenge on Honda marked a earlier than and after within the historical past of recent motorcycling, declaring it ‘Il mio grande capolavoro’- ‘my greatest masterpiece on bikes’.
Toni Elias beat Valentino Rossi on the road within the closest MotoGP end in historical past for his first and solely premier class victory
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2006 MotoGP Portuguese GP: A championship-defining second by an unlikely determine – German Garcia Casanova
The 2006 Estoril race was, for my part, some of the spectacular in historical past, for what was seen on monitor and for what it meant.
A very powerful picture of that Sunday was the accident between the rookie Dani Pedrosa and the championship chief Nicky Hayden, each from the official Honda group. That crash left the American just about with out a crown, desolate on the gravel, whereas Valentino Rossi was main the race in pursuit of a sixth premier class world championship title.
Nevertheless out of nowhere emerged a small however combative Toni Elias, in one of the best efficiency of his profession. He snatched his first and final victory in MotoGP on the road to deduct 5 factors from Rossi, second on the end.
The Italian led 25 of the 28 laps of the race, however in an sudden finish, he was shocked by Elias, who took the victory with a satellite tv for pc Honda by zero.02s. In the long run, these factors have been decisive for Hayden to regain the lead within the following race, the final of the season, in Valencia, and win the world championship by that margin of 5 factors after a shock crash for Rossi.
Rossi made an epic transfer on Stoner on the Corkscrew to win the 2008 US GP
Photograph by: Bob Heathcote
2008 MotoGP United States GP: Rossi takes to the filth to make Stoner eat it – Alberto Gomez
It had been a nightmare for the Yamaha group throughout follow classes. There was nobody who may come near Casey Stoner’s tempo.
On a monitor by means of which he appeared to levitate, the Australian rode his Ducati with smugness and ease. At Laguna Seca, neither Rossi nor Lorenzo may match the instances of the Australian, who began as an amazing favorite to win.
Throughout Saturday night, Rossi frolicked together with his crew looking for a potion that may allow him to match up together with his opponent. However nothing made sense earlier than an exuberant pairing just like the one fashioned by Stoner and Ducati on that arid and difficult monitor. To Rossi, it was solely helpful as a ploy to trouble the Ducati rider as a lot as attainable, in order that it could make a solo race unattainable for him.
As quickly because the grand prix started, Rossi targeted solely on Stoner. Each inside and outdoors, the Italian rider was closing gaps, however Stoner didn’t hand over.
As each overtook each other successively, the tone of the race was rising. It was not till the fourth lap that each riders reached an unbelievable stage of competitors. After flying over the filth on the infamous ‘Corkscrew’, Rossi returned to the monitor in entrance, virtually taking Stoner out.
Years later, it was revealed that what appeared to be a manoeuvre compelled by circumstances was, in reality, a deliberate overtake, Rossi impressed by a transfer made by Alex Zanardi in a 1996 Indycar race. Stoner in the end crashed attempting to reclaim the lead from Rossi, whereas the latter returned to the Corkscrew after the race to kiss the gravel.
Rossi pulled one in all MotoGP’s most iconic overtakes on the final nook of the 2009 Catalan GP to steal victory from Lorenzo
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2009 MotoGP Catalan GP: A duel for the ages – Oriol Puigdemont
A yr after bursting onto the MotoGP scene as Valentino Rossi’s team-mate, the good dominator of the last decade, Jorge Lorenzo compelled the Italian to be at his greatest.
Stress had settled within the Yamaha storage after Rossi determined to change to Bridgestone tyres, a circumstance that compelled a wall to be erected between the 2 sides of the field with Lorenzo nonetheless on Michelins.
On the 2009 Catalan GP, it was confirmed that Yamaha had introduced collectively essentially the most highly effective pair of the second, and doubtless within the historical past of the championship.
In an trade of blows primarily based on manoeuvres to the restrict of physics, Rossi pulled out a cartoon trick to overhaul his opponent within the penultimate nook, a degree the place nobody, not even Lorenzo, imagined it was attainable to overhaul.
The Mallorcan’s face as soon as the race was over was a combination of disbelief and anger, whereas Rossi’s solely projected euphoria. Logical, if we take note of that the grand prix not solely represented a triumph and factors scored, but additionally a win inside the hierarchy at Yamaha.
The #46 would go on to win the 2009 title, earlier than Lorenzo gained in 2010, by a combination of expertise and stubbornness, and took over the reins at Yamaha.
Marquez ‘pulls a Rossi’ and overtakes the Yamaha rider on the Corkscrew in 2013 in a fashion harking back to Rossi on Stoner in 2008
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2013 MotoGP United States GP: A brand new menace exhibits how properly he is studied the playbook – Oriol Puigdemont
That Sunday was the day Valentino Rossi obtained to know the true dimension of Marc Marquez, a younger rookie who till that second had proven to own extraordinary abilities and an insatiable voracity within the smaller courses.
It was the fourth lap of a race led by poleman Stefan Bradl at Laguna Seca in 2013 when Marquez determined to go on the assault.
In a beneficiant show of the selflessness that characterises him, the child from Cervera gave Rossi the identical medication he had given Casey Stoner 5 years earlier with a well-known manoeuvre on the Corkscrew, essentially the most emblematic level of Laguna Seca.
Simply as Rossi had executed with the Australian in 2008, the Honda rider went onto the filth to win the place from the Yamaha rider earlier than dispatching Bradl and taking his third victory in MotoGP.
With that episode, Marquez despatched an unequivocal message to the world. He had dared to do to Rossi the form of methods that he was identified for inflicting on others.
The next scene of the 2 in parc ferme, with Rossi grabbing the Catalan by the neck and pretending to strangle him, will stay within the reminiscence as probably the greatest pictures of a rivalry that, sadly, two years later took a way more swampy course.
Chook strikes, overtakes a loads, last-lap victory, long-lasting controversy – Australia 2015 was a wild trip
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2015 MotoGP Australian GP: Onlookers delight in wild trip… one will get too shut – Haydn Cobb
For the trendy MotoGP period, there’s no different possibility than the 2015 Australian GP at Phillip Island. Finest monitor? Tick. Finest riders? Tick. Fights for the lead all through and a final-lap overtake for victory? Tick.
The adored Australian monitor acted as a real leveller between main producers Honda, Yamaha and Ducati with completely different sections of the format suiting completely different marques. It is also a venue the place pack races are widespread, with riders seeking to protect tyre life on the abrasive floor.
It culminated in a four-rider victory battle all through between Marc Marquez, Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo and Andrea Iannone, all break up by only one second on the chequered flag. With breath-taking motion and beautiful overtakes – and even Iannone headbutting an unlucky seagull – the dynamic developed into legendary standing with every lap, with all 4 arguably on the peak of their respective powers in grand prix racing.
The racing was fierce however truthful and Marquez’s remaining lap to tear from third to first, setting the quickest lap, stays one of many biggest of all time as he took victory from Lorenzo whereas Iannone pipped Rossi for the rostrum.
It was a scarcely plausible race, however Rossi felt underhand techniques have been at play. Having let his emotions fester he unleashed an assault on Marquez and Lorenzo, accusing the Honda rider of conspiracy to assist his countryman within the all-Yamaha title battle. The spat went nuclear on the subsequent race when the duo collided in Sepang – and MotoGP would by no means be the identical once more.
Lorenzo snatched victory from Marquez on the road in an exciting Mugello race in 2016 – a lot to the annoyance of the partisan Italian crowd
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2016 MotoGP Italian GP: Lorenzo snatches win from Marquez’s grasp – German Garcia Casanova
After all of the controversy created across the decision of the 2015 world championship, MotoGP staged its first occasion on Valentino Rossi’s residence turf with the Italian Grand Prix at Mugello.
The ambiance on the Tuscan monitor was hellish for Jorge Lorenzo and, above all, for Marc Marquez, an animosity in opposition to the riders that had by no means earlier than been skilled on a motorbike circuit following the controversial finish to 2015 between the 2 Spaniards and Rossi.
That Sunday the Italian followers hoped for a victory of their idol Rossi over the 2 Spanish ‘enemies’. Nevertheless, in a vibrant and intense race, fortune deserted the #46, whose engine broke after finishing the primary eight laps in second place caught to the tail of Yamaha team-mate Lorenzo.
Marquez took over from Rossi within the chase, coming into right into a spectacular, electrifying battle during which Lorenzo and Marquez handed and re-passed one another on quite a few events. As the ultimate lap started, we reached it with the knowledge that Marquez knew precisely the place on the circuit he needed to go Lorenzo, block him and take the victory.
He did so into the on the Flip 13/14 chicane and it appeared that he succeeded, arriving in entrance coming into the ultimate nook. The Honda was rather more highly effective than the Yamaha, which was extra versatile and agile within the corners.
The victory of the #93 appeared so assured that each one the members of Marquez’s group climbed the wall of the ending straight to applaud their successful rider. Nevertheless, the ‘fragile’ engine of Lorenzo’s M1, which had damaged within the morning warm-up, and within the race with Rossi, determined to be the protagonist and gave its final breath on the lengthy straight of Mugello, beating the Honda by zero.019 seconds over the end line.
The 2018 Dutch TT was determined after 100+ overtakes throughout 26 laps
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2018 MotoGP Dutch TT: Like overtakes? Have 100 of them… – Lewis Duncan
Of all the 1000 grand prix occasions in world championship historical past since 1949, the Dutch TT at Assen has featured essentially the most of any. Assen is named the cathedral of motorbike racing, and whereas it might not look even remotely much like the way it did again in 1949, it stays an epic.
Assen has been the scene of a few of MotoGP most interesting races, however the 2018 Dutch TT certainly usurps all of them. There have been over 100 overtakes throughout a 26-lap race and 7 riders battling for the victory all the way down to the wire.
There have been daring overtakes everywhere in the present, contact between Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi that by some means didn’t finish in catastrophe, and a wild save from Marc Marquez popping out of the Flip 5 hairpin that he had completely no proper in making.
It was a very breathless 45 minutes that in the end went the best way of Marquez, the cream rising firmly to the highest regardless of the circumstances. It’s races like Assen 2018 that make every go to to the Dutch venue particular.
Simply zero.zero13s break up Alex Rins and Marc Marquez on the end line of this Silverstone epic in 2019
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2019 MotoGP British GP: Marquez will get Rinsed in Silverstone thriller – Lewis Duncan
It speaks volumes in regards to the high quality of MotoGP now that so many entries on this checklist are modern-era ones. Dorna Sports activities’ efforts to tighten the sphere over the past 10 years has led to a number of the greatest racing we’ve ever seen.
The 2019 British Grand Prix is one such instance. Following one other epic duel between Marc Marquez and Andrea Dovizioso on the earlier spherical in Austria, the paddock was abuzz as MotoGP basked in its halcyon interval.
Little did we all know once we arrived at Silverstone to start out the weekend that we’d witness a grand prix that may be determined by simply zero.zero13s. Going up in opposition to Marc Marquez is not any small process, nevertheless it was one Alex Rins took in his stride because the Suzuki beneath him labored brilliantly round Silverstone’s flowing turns.
Whereas it’s typically forgotten that Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales was very a lot an element on this battle, the race in the end ended as a head-to-head between Rins and Marquez. Piling the stress on, Rins got here near crashing at Vale within the latter levels as he misplaced the entrance finish. He shortly recovered from this, although, and was hounding Marquez as they started the ultimate lap.
A failed try at slingshotting previous across the outdoors of Woodcote put Rins off monitor and allowed Marquez to carry the lead into Copse. A defensive final lap saved the Honda in entrance as they headed onto the Wellington Straight for the ultimate time.
Marquez was tight by means of Brooklands and Luffield, Rins barely wider to get a greater run out of the hairpin. Marquez went into Woodcote first, however had the smallest of actions on his Honda which killed just a few mph from his run and allowed Rins to slice up the within to attain essentially the most memorable win of his profession so far.
Whereas it didn’t characteristic any British names, the battle was harking back to the epic 1979 Silverstone duel between Barry Sheene and Kenny Roberts. Sheene, on a Suzuki, misplaced narrowly after attempting an overtake on the run to the road on the surface of Woodcote. Thus, in a method, the way of Rins’ win made amends for Suzuki’s defeat 40 years prior.
An emotional championship win for Joan Mir at Valencia in 2020 ended a 20-year await Suzuki. The producer’s demise on the finish of 2022 additional places this achievement into perspective
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2020 MotoGP Valencia GP: A dream realised – Alberto Gomez
It was 15 November, 2020. Nonetheless carrying their masks to keep away from the cursed COVID-19, leaning over the fences that ignored the beginning/end straight, the members of the manufacturing facility Suzuki group have been celebrating a historic occasion, an unthinkable feat just a few months earlier.
It was the consecration of a dream: that of Joan Mir successful his first MotoGP world title. Suzuki, on the similar time, was celebrating in an exorbitant method an ideal world championship. It squared the centenary of Suzuki Motor Company, based in 1920, and the 60th anniversary of Suzuki within the grand prix world championship – and all 20 years after the final crown with Kenny Roberts Jr.
The script of that yr had begun twisted with the outbreak of a silent and ghostly adversary as COVID compelled the world into shutdown and offered a stark new actuality.
On that day in Valencia, perched on the fence, the feelings overflowed over the blue masks. It was an exorcism that introduced out the fears and complexes of a small manufacturing facility group that had been handcrafted by Davide Brivio to succeed in, with out a lot noise, excellence.
Valencia, the race that licensed Mir’s coronation, was not an excellent race however the shortest and most secure strategy to win a title in a yr stuffed with shocks. Mir didn’t fail and, due to a conservative technique, was capable of full a joint dream. Seventh, per week after securing his first MotoGP win on the similar venue, did not matter.
A very powerful factor was an illustration smaller group with fewer assets may stand as much as the large producers and win. A superb bike and a younger rider, an outsider with a strong and constant problem, may annihilate the hopes of larger rivals like Yamaha, Honda or Ducati, in an anomalous world championship the place some tracks staged two races as a result of logistical points posed by the pandemic.
The final days, these previous to the result, have been days of worry and contagion. Many mechanics and engineers of various groups have been compelled into isolation attributable to constructive COVID assessments. The vital factor, past the monitor instances, was to guard themselves. Suzuki and Mir knew this. And they didn’t fail.
Brad Binder took a bet on slicks because the Pink Bull Ring obtained moist, and emerged with a surprising win in 2021
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2021 MotoGP Austrian GP: Who wants moist tyres? - Megan White
So far as first races go, it was a fairly good one to decide on. Having learn loads of MotoGP stories however by no means watched a race, I settled down to look at the lights go inexperienced for the 2021 Austrian GP.
With the sequence having additionally raced at Spielberg the earlier weekend, there was no cause to suppose this might be a spectacular contest. However that was earlier than the climate had begun to issue.
Rain spots began to seem on the Pink Bull Ring because the race obtained going, earlier than the rain flags have been waved on lap eight. Situations solely worsened because the grand prix went on and by lap 22, the heavens had actually opened.
Earlier than the rain, the main trio of Francesco Bagnaia, Fabio Quartararo and Marc Marquez had damaged away from the pack. However because the tempo dropped and the monitor turned more and more soaked, many opted to swap bikes, with the highest three stopping with three laps remaining.
Not Brad Binder although. The KTM man took a courageous gamble to stay together with his slicks, and it proved to be essential, if not totally bonkers. Chaos ensued over the past lap, and even Valentino Rossi – who had introduced his retirement on the earlier spherical – was in with a shot on the podium at one stage.
No-one was a match for Binder, and he miraculously saved his bike upright, regardless of just a few critical wobbles, to take his second MotoGP win. It was a very astonishing race, and one which will likely be lengthy remembered for its dramatic remaining three laps.
After the motion, I requested if races have been at all times like this, and was assured that was not the case. For this author although, will probably be remembered because the race which began an everlasting love of MotoGP.
MotoGP has been thrilling followers for 999 world championship occasions – here is to the following 999!
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