Thrilling home-race win for Rossi and FIAT Yamaha

Valentino Rossi set yet another record in his extraordinary racing career today, becoming the first rider in the history of the sport to take six consecutive wins at his home circuit. The 85,480 adoring fans who had braved the threat of rain and turned the green hillsides of the Mugello valley bright yellow were rewarded in style as the Italian scored an emphatic and emotional victory, his fourth here for Yamaha and eighth in total from twelve years of racing.

Under miraculously dry skies, the Fiat Yamaha Team rider got a poor start from third on the grid and found himself down in eighth position at turn one. Once he had built up enough heat in his Michelin tyres however he set out in earnest, picking off riders one-by-one and moving up to second behind Dani Pedrosa by lap seven of 23. Two laps later Rossi made his move on the Spaniard and from then on the pair were racing just a few tenths of a second apart, with Rossi extending the advantage around the twistier parts of the circuit and Pedrosa closing it slightly down the long home straight. Little by little however Rossi began to pull away and he eventually crossed the line 3.074 seconds ahead of Pedrosa. A late pass by Alex Barros on series-leader Casey Stoner for third place helped Rossi's points deficit and he now lies just nine points behind Stoner in the standings, with some of his favourite races coming up in the next few weeks.

It was a less successful day for Rossi's team-mate Colin Edwards, who despite showing a strong race pace in the dry today was heavily penalised by starting from the sixth row of the grid. The Texan has yet to enjoy a successful race at this circuit and was only able to make up a few places on his starting position, finishing 12th and slipping one place in the championship standings down to tenth.    Valentino Rossi Position: 1stTime: 42'42.385 "To win in Mugello once again is an incredible emotion for me and I am very happy at this moment. Racing in front of the fans here is always something unbelievable and they give me an extra motivation. It's an incredible feeling to see so much yellow around the track, the fans were 'coming crazy' today and it was a wonderful race! As we had hoped it stayed dry, the sun came out and everything went to plan! My team have worked brilliantly, my bike was perfect and I could ride it exactly how I wanted, I need to say a huge thank you to them and also to Michelin. I didn't get a very good start but once my tyres had warmed up my M1 really flew and I was able to fight back to the front. From the very beginning everyone was pushing at 100% and it was great fun in those first few laps! It was really a perfect race for me today and I felt like I had everyone on my side; Mugello is a magical track for me and this victory gives us a lot of power and confidence for the next races. I had a special helmet for this race with a big heart on it and today I think we showed that we really have a lot of heart at Yamaha. This is a great, great moment for me."

Colin Edwards Position: 12thTime: +28.001 "Yet again Mugello just hasn't worked out for me and it was a pretty terrible weekend from start to finish. I think that today I had the pace for fifth or sixth place but starting from where I was I lost about six or seven seconds on the first lap alone as there was so much traffic in front of me. We lost a lot of time on Friday morning, one of only two hours of dry practice time, trying some new stuff which didn't work out and things didn't get much better after that. I think this is just my bogey track and I can't wait to leave and get straight back out there in a few days in Barcelona. Let's hope for better things in Spain."

Davide Brivio - Team Director What a fantastic day! To win in Mugello is already wonderful but to win strongly with a gap like this is unbelievable. Even in our greatest dreams we couldn't have imagined a better race with Valentino today. This is a result that first of all Valentino deserves for the energy and motivation that he puts into everything, but also all of the team, everyone at Yamaha and Michelin. The entire group has worked very hard recently after some difficult races to bring us back to the top step. This is just one race but it's a very important one. We've reacted very well lately, we came here with some good engine developments, Michelin made some improvements too and this is a great moment for everybody. Unfortunately Colin was penalised by his starting position because his pace wasn't so bad and I think with a better grid position he could have been much higher. It's good now that we leave this track, which he doesn't like so much, and go to Barcelona where he has a much better record. Now the championship is getting very interesting and we just have to keep going like this. Well done everyone!"

The Grand Prix of Italy at the picturesque Mugello layout in the Tuscan hills proved to be a difficult weekend with changeable weather conditions over the entire three days. Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3 riders, Sylvain Guintoli and Makoto Tamada finished 14th and 15th respectively.

The circumstances of the weekend with limited dry track time made finding an optimum race set up challenging but nonetheless, the weekend provided several steps forward that will surely benefit the team in the remaining 12 rounds of the MotoGP world Championship. Particularly, these included the first use of the new generation of Dunlop's 16" front tyre in a race situation after testing at Istanbul and Le Mans. Also, based on the experience gained in the wet at both the Le Mans race and subsequent test, new wet tyres were brought and tested with positive results during practice.    Sylvain Guintoli Position: 14thTime: +45.098 That was another good weekend as I have to keep in mind that we had not so much dry practice and also that we were using the 16" front wheel for the first time in a race plus new rears because of the track temperature so we had to take a bit of a gamble but it was a good gamble. It wasn't the best of starts but I settled into a rhythm and eventually passed Olivier Jacque and my teammate Makoto - that is always the first priority. We had a good battle during the entire race so it was a lot of fun as well but it was very good for me to finish in front of them. I'm looking forward to Barcelona next week as I have had some good races there as I am normally fast there so hopefully we can have a good weekend like Le Mans.  Makoto Tamada Position: 15thTime: + 45.145 That was a very difficult weekend for everybody with the conditions as we had everything from full sun to heavy rains so it made it very hard to decide on a final setup. In the end the race was not so bad. For the opening laps I had a very good feeling but then the grip of the tyre dropped off a little but then remained pretty constant. I am very happy with the new 16in front tyre and have a much better feeling than before so I feel that I am progressing and getting faster with the bike and the tyres and it is getting better every race. Now we move on to Barcelona at a track that I like so I am hoping next week will be very good for me and the team.

Herve Poncharal - Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3 Team Manager The changeable weather conditions this weekend made it very difficult so we had to make many decisions on what might happen in the race. Unfortunately due to the variable conditions during the qualifying session we ended up not where we wanted to be on the grid. Thank heavens the day remained dry - great for the show, the team and the spectators. Both our riders made bad starts today but they recovered well and picked up the pace to pass Olivier Jacque and Carlos Checa. It is nothing to be too excited about finishing 14th and 15th but we finished with both our riders in the points again. We are still behind the others but with the new 16" front we took another positive step forward. It was a very good performance by Sylvain as he continues to learn and get faster as he battled and beat a MotoGP winner as well as an ex-250cc world champion and he does this in his rookie year. He is pushing everytime he is on the bike which to me is satisfying. Makoto also did pretty well keeping his head down after his start and with our riders results we are now just two points off Kawasaki in the teams' championship.

Now we head to Barcelona so we should be able to have stable weather for the weekend. Dunlop is working flat out to improve everytime we ride and we are reaching a critical time in the championship so hopefully we can keep the momentum going and improve our results.   Circuit Length: 5245 Temp: 24 Weather: Dry     2007 MotoGP Italy - Mugello 03/06/2007 Race 1 - 23 Laps Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Valentino Rossi Yamaha ITA 42'42.385 2 Daniel Pedrosa Honda ESP 0'3.074 3 Alex Barros Ducati BRA 0'5.956 4 Casey Stoner Ducati AUS 0'6.012 5 John Hopkins Suzuki USA 0'13.244 6 Toni Elias Honda ESP 0'19.255 7 Loris Capirossi Ducati ITA 0'19.646 8 Chris Vermeulen Suzuki AUS 0'22.810 9 Marco Melandri Honda ITA 0'22.837 10 Nicky Hayden Honda USA 0'24.413 11 Alex Hofmann Ducati GER 0'24.781 12 Colin Edwards Yamaha USA 0'28.001 13 Shinya Nakano Honda JPN 0'36.733 14 Sylvain Guintoli Yamaha FRA 0'45.098 15 Makoto Tamada Yamaha JPN 0'45.145

Rider Standings 03/06/2007

Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Points 1. Casey Stoner Ducati AUS 115 2. Valentino Rossi Yamaha ITA 106 3. Daniel Pedrosa Honda ESP 82 4. Marco Melandri Honda ITA 68 5. Chris Vermeulen Suzuki AUS 63 6. John Hopkins Suzuki USA 59 7. Loris Capirossi Ducati ITA 47 8. Toni Elias Honda ESP 45 9. Alex Barros Ducati BRA 43 10. Colin Edwards Yamaha USA 39 11. Nicky Hayden Honda USA 36 12. Alex Hofmann Ducati GER 35 13. Carlos Checa Honda ESP 20 14. Randy De Puniet Kawasaki FRA 19 15. Shinya Nakano Honda JPN 18 16. Sylvain Guintoli Yamaha FRA 14 17. Makoto Tamada Yamaha JPN 12

Team Standings 03/06/2007

Pos. Team Points 1. Ducati Marlboro Team 162 2. FIAT Yamaha Team 145 3. Rizla Suzuki 122 4. Repsol Honda Team 118 5. Honda Gresini 113 6. Pramac D'Antin 78 7. Kawasaki Racing Team 28 8. Tech3 Yamaha 26 9. Honda LCR 20 10. Konica Minolta Honda 18 11. Team Roberts 4

Manufacturer Standings 03/06/2007

Pos. Manufacturer Points 1. Ducati 118 2. Honda 109 3. Yamaha 106 4. Suzuki 82 5. Kawasaki 28 6. KR212V 4