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Valentino Rossi may have had a donkey on his helmet
today but it was ‘The Doctor' riding the bike once
again, as the Italian hero bounced back from his
Indianapolis mistake with an emphatic home victory at
Misano. His Fiat Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo finished
a strong second, making this the fifth one-two finish
for the team this season.
After the boiling heat of the last two
days the temperature today was brought right down by a
strong wind, which meant track conditions were quite
different to how they had been so far. Rossi, starting from
pole, dropped to third at the start whilst Lorenzo narrowly
escaped a pile up, which claimed three other riders. The
Spaniard then got in front of the Italian for a few laps as
Dani Pedrosa and Toni Elias battled it out for the lead, but
on lap five all changed as Rossi moved into second, passing
both his team-mate and Elias, and Lorenzo despatched Elias a
few corners later to take third.
Rossi was flying by now and took the lead
next time around, gradually opening out a gap as Lorenzo
struggled to get by Pedrosa. It took the gutsy 22-year-old
six laps to overtake his compatriot and by the time he was
through Rossi was two seconds clear and Lorenzo had to
settle for second and his tenth podium of the season. Rossi,
who lives just 10 km from the track, eventually crossed the
line 2.416 seconds ahead, taking his eleventh career win on
Italian soil and his sixth of the season to a rapturous
welcome from his passionate fans.
The gap from Rossi to Lorenzo is now 30
points, whilst Yamaha lead both the Teams and Manufacturers
standings by large margins. There is now a four-week break
to the next round, at Estoril in Portugal, with four races
remaining in total.
Valentino Rossi
"This is a great
feeling! It's taken me some time to get used to Misano and
view it as a ‘home' race because Mugello is so special to
me, but I can honestly say that winning here today, in front
of everyone dressed in yellow and with 46s everywhere, is a
great emotion and I want to thank everyone for making it so
special. Today I had to go quite carefully with the full
tank at the start and I took some time to get to the front
but once I was there it was great and my bike felt
fantastic. We didn't expect to be this competitive here but
it's been a perfect weekend, so I have to say a huge thank
you to the team for a brilliant job. Since Indianapolis,
when I made that mistake, we have been so focused and
concentrated and everyone deserves this result. I was the
‘flying donkey' today! I am happy that we are going into a
month without racing with these memories and this points
lead, but as we saw in Indy everything can change quickly so
we will be fully focused once again in Estoril when we come
back."
Jorge Lorenzo
"I did what I
had to do today and took as many points as I could, which is
the most important thing when you're not perfect.
Unfortunately we struggled a bit all weekend to find the
right setting and so I thought it was better to take care
and ensure the second place today. I took some time to get
past Dani and Toni and then it was too far to Valentino.
After I was nearly brought down on the second corner I
wanted to make sure I got the points in order to keep the
championship alive. We have some work to do but we will make
sure we're back to our best in Estoril, where I have great
memories from last year and my first win."
Davide Brivio
- Team Manager Rossi
"I think it's
been a perfect weekend! We came here after Indy feeling very
motivated to make sure we got a good result and we've done
just that. We led in almost all the sessions, took the pole
and won the race. The team and the engineers worked in a
fantastic way because the bike, since Friday afternoon,
worked well and we only had to fine-tune it to get the
perfect setting for today. We have to continue in this way
for the last four rounds, with the same system, and we're
looking forward to the next one. We've increased the gap and
decreased the number of races so this is the right way
forward for us! Congratulations to all the team and thank
you for such a good reaction to last weekend, this is a
great reward."
Daniele
Romagnoli - Team Manager Lorenzo
"Overall we're
satisfied with today's result, although of course our aim is
to win races and try to keep the tension on this fantastic
championship to the end. This weekend we encountered a few
more difficulties with the setting but today we were in
better shape for the race than we were in all the practice
sessions so this is positive. The championship is difficult
but we will fight to the end and keep trying to improve at
every race."
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