Bangin’ 500
The 2021 MotoGP is a landmark year in Grand Prix history, most poignantly so with the retirement of Valentino Rossi. The Doctor contested 26 GP seasons, resulting in 115 victories, 235 podiums and nine World championships, no less than seven of them in the iconic 500cc/MotoGP class.
But this is also the 20th anniversary of the year when the ring-ding roadshow disappeared from GP racing’s premier class; 2001 marked the final appearance of the 500cc two-strokes that delivered a level of performance, and especially a power-to-weight ratio, which in that pre-electronic rider aids era made them so hard to handle, and so spectacular to watch.
It’s an era epitomised by the bike on which Valentino Rossi won his first-ever major league title in 2001, in the last-ever 500cc world championship; Honda’s NSR500.
Its 18-year career at the head of the 500GP points table made Honda’s V4 the all-time top two-stroke. Appropriately, Valentino’s victory in 2001’s season-ending Brazilian GP in Rio on his NSR500 on 3 November, while marking the endgame for the 500cc class after 53 years, was achieved with the ultimate evolution of what turned out to
