As it’s Valentino Rossi’s 37th birthday today we figured it’d be a good time to bring you this – the Italian’s first ever 500cc GP win.

The race is from 2000 and the race was the British 500GP from Donington Park.

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The track was damp at the start of the race and Rossi, at the time the reining 250cc World Champion, turned in a tour de force in the slippery conditions on the Honda.

Suzuki’s Kenny Roberts Jr managed to squeeze second by the end of the race from a terrific ride on the Aprilia by Jeremy McWilliams.

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Well worth a watch and a bit of a retro-reminder of the skills of the ‘old man’ of GP racing these days. Nine titles so far and counting…

Here’s the race:

https://youtu.be/IWiM2EAux0o

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VIDEO: Valentino Rossi’s first 500cc GP win – full race (Donington, 2000)

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Tony Carter

Tony has been riding motorcycles for over 35 years and he's been a motorcycle writer for over 25 of those. He's ridden almost every motorcycle you can think of at most places around the world and he's partial to some racing, too. A Taurus, Tony doesn't believe in horoscopes (but then that's exactly what a Taurus would say!) but he does believe in Mandalorians and their right to earn a living.