Valentino has been a works Yamaha rider since 2004, but after a troubled 2007 he switched from Michelin to Bridgestone tyres for this season. Initially it may have looked like the wrong decision, but Rossi came to Mugello, round six, having won the last two races and moved ahead on points. It couldn’t have been better for him, as Mugello is his domain and he had to be the favourite.

The Italian Grand Prix had swapped between four different venues in the 1970s and 1980s. Mugello first hosted the race in 1976, but only became its permanent home in 1994. Since that time, Rossi had raced at the GP twelve times, and he’d won eight of them. In fact, 2001 was the last year he was beaten here, when in fact he crashed on the last lap in a wet race. He has won six in a row since then.

The setting is a scenic one, and the circuit a fast one, with flowing corners linked together through elevation changes. Qualifying conditions were good, but before that there had been a wet practice with some fallers. Shin’ya Nakano and Loris Capirossi were caught out, and another to hit the deck was a familiar face from the recent past. Tadayuki Okada is a Honda career man, with three 250cc GP seasons, five GP500 seasons and one year in World Superbikes behind him. ‘Tady’ won six Grands Prix, and was the 500 runner-up in 1997.

Okada has been involved with HRC since retiring from full-time racing action, including as part of the HM Plant supported British Superbike outfit. He also has test riding duties, and was among the field here for that reason, giving a first race outing to the RC212V with a pneumatic valve engine - which the regular works riders may have next time. His first Grand Prix was in 1989 and his last was in 2000. At 41, he was the oldest man out there, next to 35-year-old Loris Capirossi.

Okada would start from fifteenth in Repsol colours, but the grid looked good from the Italian point of view. Rossi would start from pole position, his fortieth in the top class, and he was joined up front by Rizla Suzuki rider Capirossi. Loris had managed to get a bit of a tow round from Valentino for his best lap, and would start third - the first front row for Suzuki this year. Between the two came Dani Pedrosa for Repsol Honda.

Casey Stoner was fourth for Marlboro Ducati, but the champion was the only rider to get anything much from the Italian bikes. His team-mate Marco Melandri was in P18, just behind the Alice customer team riders Toní Elías and Sylvain Guintoli. With Yamaha, Honda, Suzuki and Ducati leading off the grid, the first ‘repeat’ was the Yamaha of fifth man Colin Edwards, for the Tech 3 team. His partner James Toseland was a row back in eighth.

Sixth went to Nicky Hayden (Repsol), then came the Michelin-shod Fiat Yamaha of rookie Jorge Lorenzo. The Spaniard’s ankles were in better shape than in France, but were still not fully mended for this his 100th GP. After Toseland came Nakano and Alex de Angelis on the San Carlo Honda Gresini bikes, an improvement for both over previous meetings, and then came the second Suzuki of Chris Vermeulen.

Twelfth went to Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda), then it was Andrea Dovizioso (JiR Scot Honda). First of the Kawasakis was John Hopkins in P14, with his partner Anthony West in P19, following on behind Okada, Elías, Guintoli and Melandri. For this event, pole man Rossi wore a helmet with an image of his own surprised face on top.

Conditions were bright and hot for the race, and Pedrosa got away first in front of Stoner and Capirossi. Hayden was fourth, followed by the two works Yamahas, but Rossi was quick to get in front of him, and to follow on Valentino also got past Loris. At the end of lap one, the long and fast main start-finish straight saw Stoner move to the left of Pedrosa and power ahead so that he was first man into San Donato, the heavy braking right-handed first corner.

Stoner, Pedrosa, Rossi and Capirossi led the rest, with a slight gap opening to Hayden. Dovizioso took sixth from Lorenzo and then came Edwards, de Puniet, Nakano, Toseland, Melandri, Hopkins, de Angelis, Elías, Guintoli, Vermeulen, Okada and West. Early shuffles saw Toseland gain two places and de Puniet lose two, with de Angelis starting to move forward at the expense of Hopkins.

Rossi attacked second man Pedrosa braking on the inside for San Donato, but he didn’t get ahead until the long horseshoe left final corner, Bucine, where he got on the inside on the way in. Meanwhile, the right-handed Scarperia corner had seen Dovizioso go inside to pass Hayden, with Lorenzo allowed enough room to be able to follow him past.

Hayden was not on the pace of the leaders, so Dovizioso and Lorenzo started to pull away, with the first four clear of them. Fastest lap at this stage went to de Angelis, who had now passed de Puniet and Melandri and was starting to look pretty good in eleventh. Meanwhile, Rossi used the downhill chicane bends, going neatly inside through the Savelli left-hander, to take the lead away from Stoner.

Rossi, Stoner and Pedrosa continued at the front, with Capirossi being caught by Dovizioso and Lorenzo. Loris began to lose touch with the leaders, making it two groups of three, but with even more action among the next group. San Marino native de Angelis was in form as he worked his way through to eighth, but Toseland went on his inside at San Donato and in fact also passed Hayden in the move, to take on seventh position.

Toseland and the attacking de Angelis moved just clear of Hayden, who was then passed through the right-handed Casanova bend by Edwards, with Nakano right there in P11. The order behind them would soon change. P13 man de Puniet crashed in front of Melandri, with the Ducati rider having to go off the track, where he also fell. Soon after it was Hopkins’ turn to exit, which let Vermeulen into P12.

Stoner improved on Max Biaggi’s 2005 lap record, but even so Rossi would soon start to ease clear and leave the Ducati rider to race Pedrosa for second. Capirossi still headed Dovizioso and Lorenzo, but he got a bit of a break when the Spaniard went to overtake his fellow MotoGP rookie. Jorge went through Casanova inside Andrea, but he’d braked deep and ran out wide, where it turned into a lowside crash and his first retirement of the year. Until that moment, the four class rookies had been in positions five to eight.

The home fans now saw Rossi race into a two-second lead, and it was Stoner and Pedrosa disputing second. San Donato saw Casey brake very late and go wide, which allowed Dani to get past him on the inside. By half-distance, the Honda man seemed to be starting to ease clear, but the champion was pushing and he got onto his rival’s tail again. San Donato was also the location for the next move, with Stoner going to the inside in the braking zone and easing through into second again.

Rossi was 2.5s clear by now, which was going out to 3.0s and over. Pedrosa stayed with Stoner, but the Australian rider’s effort was obvious as he had a rear slide at one corner, and eventually the Ducati pulled away from the Honda. Casey started to wear down Valentino’s advantage a touch, but ‘the Doctor’ responded, and he was still more than two-seconds in front as he finally backed off and took the win - his third in a row in 2008, and his seventh in a row here in Italy.

Stoner was second, having got more than 2.3s in front of Pedrosa. The Spaniard kept up his consistent record with third, but there had been a rider closing in over the final laps. Toseland had been passed by de Angelis on the inside at Casanova and, after the demise of Lorenzo, Alex had caught and passed both Dovizioso and Capirossi. He was well clear of them as he finished fourth behind Pedrosa.

Dovizioso had been using a softer rear tyre choice than most and, before he could get to grips with Capirossi, Toseland arrived and went past the Honda with a slipstream on the main straight. James did a similar thing to the Suzuki rider, again moving to the right of his rival, which put him fifth. But Edwards was also going well, and he overtook the same pair to chase after his team-mate. Colin went ahead with a move around the outside at one of the right-handers, and he moved away to secure fifth at the flag.

Sixth was between Toseland, Capirossi, Dovizioso and Nakano who closed up in the final laps and finished in that order - Andrea had gone tight inside Loris at Bucine to pass, but the Suzuki man later reversed this. Hayden was not fairing too well, and he would ultimately lose out to Vermeulen, Guintoli and Elías, having therefore dropped all the way from fourth at the start to thirteenth at the end. Okada defeated West as these two completed the field. With four riders out, everyone left scored points. Tady had scored in consecutive GPs, even though his last one had been on 29th October 2000.

Valentino Rossi cemented his position as the monarch of Mugello with another acclaimed win, and at the same time put himself forward as the 2008 MotoGP title favourite. With Dani Pedrosa pushed back to third, and Jorge Lorenzo out of the race, Rossi takes a twelve point lead forward to the next race. That one takes place in Spain, where his two main rivals will be willed on the way Rossi was here. Meanwhile, Casey Stoner had an encouraging outing, on a circuit where he’d actually been off the podium in 2007, and he will hope that it marks the start of a renewed challenge to try and defend his title.

Alex de Angelis had the race of his season so far, advancing from fourteenth to a good fourth. He had previously been second at Mugello in the 2006-07 250cc races. But he will obviously want to do as well away from the circuits in Italy and San Marino. Tech 3 Yamaha also had a good day, with their best joint result of the season. Colin Edwards maintains fifth overall, with James Toseland moving up one to eighth. Perhaps it will be Yamaha’s year, and perhaps Rossi will make sure that it is.

Standings after six races: Rossi 122; Pedrosa 110; Lorenzo 94; Stoner 76; Edwards 58; Capirossi 51; Dovizioso 44; Toseland 43; Hayden 40; Nakano 35; Vermeulen 31; Hopkins 26.
Yamaha 140; Honda 110; Ducati 81; Suzuki 54; Kawasaki 29.

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