Valentino Rossi brought the house down once again in Mugello today with an emotional seventh straight victory at his home track in front of 96,000 adoring fans. It was the Fiat Yamaha Team Rider’s ninth win in total and fifth for Yamaha at this track and also his third win in a row this season, the first time he has won three consecutive races since 2005. His 91st victory is also a first for Bridgestone at this track.
Starting from pole for the first time in almost a year, Rossi set nerves on edge when he slipped a few places at the start, exiting turn one in fourth. He soon passed his compatriot Loris Capirossi however and crossed the line for the first time hot on the heels of Stoner and Pedrosa. Lap three saw him pass Pedrosa and then Stoner next time around, leaving him in the lead. From then on it was the Italian’s race and he stretched the gap to more than three seconds at one point, before rolling off slightly in the later stages as the temperature increased. He eventually crossed the line 2.201 seconds clear of Stoner, with his army of yellow-clad tifosi singing him home from the hillsides before invading the track, as is tradition here, and swarming under the podium.
It was a day of contrasts for the Fiat Yamaha Team as Jorge Lorenzo, in his 100th Grand Prix, slid out of the race on lap seven when looking strong in sixth place. Rossi is now 12 points clear of Pedrosa at the top of the championship and Lorenzo is 16 points off him in third. The team now heads directly to Barcelona for the Catalunya Grand Prix in just seven day’s time.
Valentino RossiPosition: 1st Time: 42'31.153 “After winning the championship, winning at Mugello is the next best thing for me and once again today it was like a dream. There is no way to describe the feeling I have standing on the podium in front of all of my fans here and I am so happy that I could win once again today. To win for the seventh time running at my home track is amazing but I felt quite a lot of pressure about this, so it’s a relief as well because I didn’t want to disappoint everyone! It’s been a hard weekend for everyone because of the bad weather and the lack of dry track time, but my crew have done a fantastic job with the bike and my M1 was wonderful today. Once I got to the front I was able to make a gap from the others but towards the end it was unbelievably hot and it became quite hard to ride. I wanted to ease off a bit but Casey was pushing hard behind so I had to keep going. Thanks to all of my team, to the engineers and of course to Bridgestone! I’m really glad that I’ve been the one to give them their first win at this track and they did a great job today because my tyre worked virtually the same from start to finish. It’s been a fantastic day, it’s always one of the best moments of the year for me and now we’ve made a bit more of the gap at the top of the championship so things couldn’t be better. Honestly after this weekend I think I would like to go to bed for five days but now we have to go straight to Barcelona!”
Davide Brivio - Team Manager “We did it! There has been a lot of pressure on us this weekend because everyone has been talking about Valentino’s six wins in a row and expecting him to make it seven, and I think everyone in the team has felt it. Well done to all of them for keeping focused throughout and providing Valentino with the tools to do the job; what a job he did! It’s wonderful to watch him ride like this at Mugello it seems no one can stop him here. We’ve had three wins in a row but there’s no time to relax as now we go straight to Barcelona for what we know will be another big battle.”
Masahiko Nakajima - Team Director “We have felt a lot of pressure here because we wanted Valentino to be able to continue his winning streak and we were worried that, if we lost, the Italians would be very angry with us! We made a huge effort and we are very happy because we have achieved one of the most important objectives of the early part of the season. Now we have many others to achieve and we have to find more energy for Catalunya next week. It’s clear that the Bridgestone and Yamaha combination and cooperation is well matched now and we have a lot of confidence in our bike. On behalf of Yamaha I would like to congratulate Valentino and all of the team staff.”
Ambient temperature: 29 degrees
Track temperature: 42 degrees
Humidity: 30%
Results: 1. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Fiat Yamaha Team 42'31.1532. Casey Stoner (AUS) Ducati Marlboro + 2.201
3. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda + 4.867
4. Alex De Angelis (RSM) San Carlo Honda Gresini + 6.313
5. Colin Edwards (USA) Tech 3 Yamaha + 12.530
6. James Toseland (GBR) Tech 3 Yamaha + 13.806
7. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 14.447
8. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) JiR Team Scot MotoGP + 15.319
9. Shinya Nakano (JPN) San Carlo Honda Gresini + 15.327
10. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Rizla Suzuki + 30.785
11. Sylvain Guintoli (FRA) Alice Team + 39.621
12. Toni Elias (SPA) Alice Team + 50.021
13. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda + 50.440
14. Tadyuki Okada (JPN) Repsol Honda Team + 58.849
15. Anthony West (AUS) Kawasaki Racing + 1'00.736
Not Classified: Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Fiat Yamaha Team 17 Lap
John Hopkins (USA) Kawasaki Racing 17 Lap
Randy De Puniet (FRA) LCR Honda MotoGP 18 Lap
Marco Melandri (ITA) Ducati Marlboro 18 Lap
Championship Standings: 1. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Fiat Yamaha Team 1222. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda 110
3. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Fiat Yamaha Team 94
4. Casey Stoner (AUS) Ducati Marlboro 76
5. Colin Edwards (USA) Tech 3 Yamaha 58
6. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 51
7. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) JiR Team Scot MotoGP 44
8. James Toseland (GBR) Tech 3 Yamaha 43
9. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda 40
10. Shinya Nakano (JPN) San Carlo Honda Gresini 35
11. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Rizla Suzuki 31
12. John Hopkins (USA) Kawasaki Racing 26
13. Marco Melandri (ITA) Ducati Marlboro 24
14. Toni Elias (SPA) Alice Team 24
15. Alex De Angelis (RSM) San Carlo Honda Gresini 24
16. Randy De Puniet (FRA) LCR Honda MotoGP 18
17. Sylvain Guintoli (FRA) Alice Team 12
18. Anthony West (AUS) Kawasaki Racing 6
19. Tadyuki Okada (JPN) Repsol Honda Team 2
Mugello: Record Lap: M. Biaggi (Honda) 2005, 1'50.117
Best Lap: S. Gibernau (Ducati) 2006, 1'48.969
