Grand Prix attendance breaks records

The biggest crowd at the British GP in years helped break new attendance figures for a world championship season.

Official figures released by series organisers Dorna said 1,588.635 attended GPs to see Valentino Rossi lock horns with bitter rival Max Biaggi.

Compared to statistics from the 2000 season, crowds were up at 10 of the 16 rounds with Donington Park showing one of the biggest increases.

The huge Chris Walker fan base, coupled with Rossi’s popularity and the fact that Jeremy McWilliams won the Dutch 250 GP at Assen just a week beforehand, saw the Briitsh crowd rise from 25,000 to 58,716.

The biggest crowd of the season for the second year in succession was at the Valencia race in September. A massive 212,307 attended that race over three days while 120,289 were there on race day to see Sete Gibernua win his first ever GP.