MotoGP's Best Battles: No3 Phillip Island 2000

Our pick of the 10 greatest premier-class multi-rider dogfights of all time.

hillip Island usually keeps the front runners tangled together like a pack of brawling hyenas. This time, at half distance 1.6sec covered the leading dozen! Then the frenzy increased. Riders crashed, ran into each other or destroyed their tyres. With three laps left, five men were still going for the win: Biaggi (Yamaha), Rossi (Honda), McCoy (Yamaha) and Pons Honda team-mates Capirossi and Barros.

Biaggi stole the lead from Capirossi with one and a half laps to go, and the the three Italians finished almost together, Barros just behind, McCoy losing touch in the final assault.

Rossi might have won his third 500 GP here, but the battle was so frantic he failed to see the last-lap signal on his pit board.

Words Mat Oxley