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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 Rossi 1st 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.”
Fiat Yamaha Team
rider Jorge Lorenzo had a disappointing 100th Grand Prix
today, crashing out of the Italian round of the championship
on lap seven when running strongly in sixth place. Lorenzo,
who is still not quite at 100% after suffering two fractured
ankles in China one month ago, had struggled all weekend to
find a good set-up, hampered by the lack of dry track time
after losing Friday and Saturday morning to rain. Starting
from seventh however he seemed to have found a better rhythm
and was lapping as fast as the leaders when he made a
mistake at turn ten, lost the front and slid into the gravel
trap. It was a frustrating end to the weekend for the young
Spaniard who was hoping for more after already having taken
three poles, a race win and three podiums since he joined
Yamaha at the start of the season.
Jorge Lorenzo DNF; “We have had a lot of problems
this weekend but today for the race I was feeling very
motivated and I got a good start. I think I could have
fought for the podium and I can only say sorry to my team
and to all of my fans; it was my mistake. I shouldn’t have
tried to pass Dovizioso in this corner, it wasn’t the right
place and I will learn from it. I am not worried about my
mental condition though and I am now focused on Catalunya.
Montmelo is coming and this is a good thing because I only
have to wait five days until I can ride the bike again. In
China we had to make some changes to the bike to enable me
to ride in my condition and since then maybe we haven’t been
exactly right with the set-up, but now we know where the
problem is. Congratulations to Rossi, he was the best
today!”
Daniele Romagnoli Team Manager; “Unfortunately this
weekend has been very difficult for us and we weren’t able
to improve the set-up of the bike enough. We made some
changes in the warm-up however and it seemed Jorge had a
better pace during the early laps than he has had all
weekend. It’s a pity that he crashed but these things
happen! Now we have to analyse all of the data from this
weekend in order to find the right set-up for Barcelona so
that we can give Jorge a good package for his home race.
Thanks to all the team for doing a great job in difficult
circumstances, unfortunately it wasn’t to be this weekend
but we’re going to try to make up for it in Montmelo.”
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