The 2000 British motorcycle Grand Prix was the ninth round of the 2000 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season. It took place on 9 July 2000 at Donington Park.
Ralf Waldmann's final win in the 250 cc classification is of particular note. On a drying track, he came from nearly a whole lap down to win at the final corner at the notoriously slippery Donington Park circuit.
500cc race report
This race was most notable for the three-way battle for victory between Valentino Rossi, Kenny Roberts Jr. and Jeremy McWilliams, as well as Rossi's first victory in the premier class, coming back from a poor start to win the race.
Kenny Roberts Jr. is leading the hunt for the 2000 crown with 125 points, followed by Carlos Checa with 111 and Norick Abe with 91 points.
On Saturday, Alex Barros had grabbed pole position - his third of the year and a strong showing after winning last time out in the Netherlands. Behind him was championship leader Kenny Roberts Jr. in second, Garry McCoy in third and rookie Valentino Rossi in fourth. The second row of the grid consisted out of Max Biaggi, Carlos Checa, Norick Abe and last year's champion Àlex Crivillé in fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth places. Aprilia rider Jeremy McWilliams started way down in fifteenth place, failing to improve his time after he broke two bones in his foot after crashing during free practice on Friday.
Before the start of the race, a one-minute's silence was held as a tribute to Joey Dunlop, who had died in a freak accident in Tallinn, Estonia while leading a 125cc race only seven days earlier.
During the 250cc race, it had rained which left the circuit wet. As a result, every rider had opted to pick the Rain tyre for the race.
All riders take off and do their usual warm-up lap before lining up in their respective grid slots. As the lights go out, Rossi has a bad start when his rear tyre slides, lacking grip because of the wet track on the opening lap. As he loses positions, Frenchman Régis Laconi takes the lead going into Redgate (Turn 1), followed by Barros and Gibernau - who made up eleven positions to catapult himself into third by the time the group arrived at the Old Hairpin (Turn 4). Both Rossi and Biaggi had dropped down the order significantly, with Rossi being in thirteenth and Biaggi in fifteenth spot halfway around lap 1. McWilliams meanwhile managed to make good use of the chaos and passed eight people to position himself in seventh. At the short straight before Coppice (Turn 8), McWilliams also passes Nobuatsu Aoki for sixth, then passes Roberts before exiting the corner to move himself up into fifth place. Rossi behind has managed to pass Jurgen van den Goorbergh and is now battling José Luis Cardoso for eleventh at Starkey's Straight. At the front, Abe is trying to pass Gibernau around the outside of the entrance at The Esses (Turn 9), but goes a bit wide when he doesn't manage to break properly because of the wet circuit and slots back behind the Spaniard.
As lap two begins, the top six is as follows: Laconi, Barros, Gibernau, Abe, McWilliams and Roberts Jr. Rossi moved up into tenth after passing Tetsuya Harada's Aprilia and Biaggi slid further down the order, now being behind McCoy in a lowly seventeenth spot. Barros is slowly closing up on Laconi, with Rossi passing Okada at the short straight before Coppice for ninth. At Starkey's Straight, Rossi then goes side by side with Loris Capirossi and passes him at the entrance to The Esses for eighth position. At the front, Barros takes the lead by passing Laconi at the entrance of the Melbourne Hairpin (Turn 10).
Lap three and Rossi is slowly closing the gap to the Telefónica Suzuki of Aoki, as does McWilliams to Abe. Barros meanwhile is opening up a significant gap to Laconi, who is now starting to struggle a little bit. Rossi caught and passed the Japanese at the entrance of Coppice, moving him up into seventh place.
On lap four, Laconi is closing the gap to Barros slightly. No overtakes happened at the front.
Lap five and the top four is bunching up, with McWilliams joining the group. Later on in the lap, Roberts Jr. closes up on McWilliams, with the American overtaking him at the entrance of Goddards (Turn 11) for fifth spot.