Race of the year: 3rd - Australian Grand Prix, Phillip Island

After another epic season of racing, MCN’s sports team of Michael Guy (Sports Editor), Simon Patterson (MotoGP reporter) and Oli Rushby (Superbike reporter) sat down to discuss their favourite races of the year across MotoGP, World Superbike, British Superbike and road racing.

It’s been a year of huge action across all classes – and it wasn’t an easy decision to cut down the 120-odd races we’ve seen this year to a mere five. Here’s what we think –  but feel free to disagree with us in the comments!

Race of the year: 3^rd – Australian Grand Prix, Phillip Island

If there’s one circuit on the MotoGP calendar that’s almost guaranteed to deliver a close, frenetic race then it’s the home of the Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island. One of the championship’s old classics, the high-speed corners of the south coast circuit means that no one ever breaks away.

There was no more perfect example of that than the 2015 classic, when Marquez, Rossi, Lorenzo and Iannone went down to the wire in what was regarded as one of the greatest battles of the modern era. Or it was, until 2017…

The sort of race that lives in legend, this year’s fight saw an incredible eight racers go toe to toe for almost the entire race distance, with Rossi, Iannone, and Marquez joined by Crutchlow, Zarco, Rins, Viñales and home favourite Jack Miller.

And while a late break from Marquez to extend his championship lead meant we were denied a last lap attack for the win, second place was decided among three Yamahas by a mere 0.01 – just about as close as you can get!