2007 FIM MotoGP World Championship Mugello, Italy June 3, 2007 Race Results: 1. Valentino ROSSI (Yamaha), Michelin, 23 laps, 42:42.385 2. Dani PEDROSA (Honda), Michelin, -3.074 seconds 3. Alex BARROS (Ducati), Bridgestone, -5.956 seconds 4. Casey STONER (Ducati), Bridgestone, -6.012 seconds 5. John HOPKINS (Suzuki), Bridgestone, -13.244 seconds 6. Toni ELIAS (Honda), Bridgestone, -19.255 seconds 7. Loris CAPIROSSI (Ducati), Bridgestone, -19.646 seconds 8. Chris VERMEULEN (Suzuki), Bridgestone, -22.810 seconds 9. Marco MELANDRI (Honda), Bridgestone, -22.837 seconds 10. Nicky HAYDEN (Honda), Michelin, -24.413 seconds 11. Alex HOFMANN (Ducati), Bridgestone, -24.781 seconds 12. Colin EDWARDS (Yamaha), Michelin, -28.001 seconds 13. Shinya NAKANO (Honda), Michelin, -36.733 seconds 14. Sylvain GUINTOLI (Yamaha), Dunlop, -45.098 seconds 15. Makoto TAMADA (Yamaha), Dunlop, -45.145 seconds 16. Olivier JACQUE (Kawasaki), Bridgestone, -45.217 seconds 17. Kenny Lee ROBERTS (KR-Honda), Michelin, -87.222 seconds 18. Carlos CHECA (Honda), Michelin, -14 laps, DNF, crash 19. Kurtis ROBERTS (KR-Honda), Michelin, -20 laps, DNF, mechanical 20. Randy DE PUNIET (Kawasaki), Bridgestone, -22 laps, DNF, crash MotoGP World Championship Point Standings (after 6 of 18 races): 1. Stoner, 115 points 2. Rossi, 106 points 3. Pedrosa, 82 points 4. Melandri, 68 points 5. Vermeulen, 63 points 6. Hopkins, 59 points 7. Capirossi, 47 points 8. Elias, 45 points 9. Barros, 43 points 10. Edwards, 39 points 11. Hayden, 36 points 12. Hofmann, 35 points 13. Checa, 20 points 14. De Puniet, 19 points 15. Guintoli, 14 points 16. Tamada, 12 points 17. Nieto, 5 points 18. TIE, Jacque/Kenny Lee Roberts, 4 points More, from a press release issued by Rizla Suzuki: High five for Hopkins in Italy Rizla Suzuki MotoGP racer John Hopkins powered his way through the MotoGP field during today’s Italian Grand Prix at Mugello to finish in a fantastic fifth place. Hopkins started from ninth position on the grid and started his fight right from the beginning of the 23-lap race. By lap eight he had moved up into fourth place and was challenging for a podium. The Anglo-American was unable to match the top speed of the Ducatis of Casey Stoner and Alex Barros along Mugello’s front straight, and although he battled to the end he had to settle for a hard-earned fifth position. Chris Vermeulen began the race from the front row and got off to a good start, before his inexperience at the Italian circuit caused him to drop back. He found his rhythm in the middle of the race as he got involved in tussle with World Champion Nicky Hayden. Vermeulen finally got the better of Hayden later on and finished strongly as he also passed Marco Melandri in the closing stages to finish eighth. Today’s race was held in dry conditions with sporadic warm sunshine bathing over 80,000 frenzied Italian fans at trackside. They were treated to a sixth consecutive home GP victory by Valentino Rossi the first rider ever to complete this feat at their home track. Rizla Suzuki MotoGP stays in third place in the team’s championship and will be looking to consolidate that position as it moves on to Barcelona in Spain for round seven of the MotoGP World Championship next weekend. John Hopkins: “It was a busy race, but an enjoyable one to say the least! We would have liked to have kept the podium streak going for Rizla Suzuki, but it was not to be today. It was really hard going at the start and I got involved in a bit of a dogfight with Valentino, which was really enjoyable it was close racing but fun! The group then sort of bunched up a bit and then suddenly Rossi, Pedrosa and Stoner started to make a break and I knew I had to stay with them. I busted my butt to keep up there and the Bridgestone tyres performed great. I think we chose the right tyres today considering the amount of dry track time we had in practice. The bike was awesome out there, especially on the brakes the amount of stability it has under braking is amazing! The mechanics did a fantastic job this weekend considering the conditions they had to work in, so a big thanks to them. We are now ready to go to Catalunya a track I really like and see what we can do there!” Chris Vermeulen: “It was nice to start from the front row as it gave me a good opportunity. I got a decent start and followed Stoner early on, but I just couldn’t hang in there with the top group. I got passed by a couple of guys and to be truthful I was a bit inexperienced with the circuit. I went down the field and my times dropped off quicker than everyone else, although at the end they were quite similar. We got some good points and eighth is pretty good from a track that we knew was going to be hard work. Hopefully now we can go to some circuits that are a bit more familiar to us and get back up there challenging!” Paul Denning Team Manager: “The field got a bit spread out in the final third of the race, but there is no doubt that the first two-thirds made up for that with both Rizla Suzukis in the thick of the action. From ninth on the grid John did everything that we expect of him these days and went bar-to-bar with the best riders in the world to force his way into a podium challenge. Fifth is not his best result of the season, but having used up his tyres early with his aggressive charge to the front it was a fantastic ride! “Chris is still a relative newcomer to Mugello and couldn’t quite hang with the pace early on. He certainly learnt a lot out there and got into a good rhythm, he managed to tough it out in the last few laps to pass Hayden and Melandri. These are big names on factory bikes, and although eighth is not where Chris wants to be he can take a lot from this race as we head to Barcelona.” More, from a press release issued by Konica Minolta Honda: KONICA MINOLTA Honda Team takes vital home points at Mugello After a weekend of variable weather, today’s Italian MotoGP race was held in glorious sunshine at the 3.2mile Mugello circuit. KONICA MINOLTA Honda’s Shinya Nakano battled hard in the early stages, but again suffered with chatter problems on his Honda RC212V machine eventually coming home in 13th position. The KONICA MINOLTA Honda Team will now analyse the data and make improvements to their Honda machine as the MotoGP paddock heads to Catalunya, near Barcelona for race seven of the 18-round championship, which takes place in just a week’s time. Gianluca Montiron Team Manager KONICA MINOLTA Honda “I think the race was not so bad in the first part as Shinya was very close to the top lap time with his own. Then from the middle of the race onwards his times were not so consistent and the chatter from the front-end of his machine became a factor and this didn’t allow Shinya to be consistent towards the end of the race. We now need to analyse this problem that Shinya had in the last part of race when the tyre is past its best. Thanks to a better performance at the start where his lap time was closer to the top group, we hope to have more data to analyse to find where the chatter is coming from. We will check with Michelin if other riders had this problem or if it is something only we suffer from. We will do this on the run-up to next week’s Catalunya GP.” Shinya Nakano Rider, KONICA MINOLTA Honda (13th position) “My start wasn’t too bad and from then until the middle of race my lap time was pretty good and I had a good feeling with the bike. I felt that the race setting we had on the bike was the best of the weekend, but then from the middle of the race we suffered from a chatter problem once more and I had to reduce my corner speed, which is when Colin Edwards overtook me. From there I was on my own with a gap behind me, so even though I couldn’t push any harder, I wanted to hang on for some points. We will now look at the data and hopefully improve in time for next week’s race.” Giulio Bernardelle Technical Director, KONICA MINOLTA Honda “In the early laps we could see that Shinya could run similar lap times to the group in front of him, but from the middle of the race we again could see that the bike was chattering and under-steering and the problem got worse so it was not possible for him to push any harder. His early performance meant that we were looking at a top 10 finish and our potential at this race was probably higher than in the last couple of races. Obviously we are disappointed with this situation and tonight we will be analysing the data to see why. Warm-up this morning was dry, but the temperature was low so it was not so easy to choose our race tyre. We had two choices and went with the harder of the two, so we will also be talking to our Technical Partner Michelin to make improvements in time for Barcelona.” More, from a press release issued by Bridgestone: Barros heads Bridgestone brigade to take Mugello podium Round 06 – Italy – Race Mugello, Italy – Sunday 3 June 2007 Alex Barros led the Bridgestone brigade in Mugello this afternoon taking an impressive third place to score his debut podium of the season, his first on Bridgestone tyres, and the tenth individual podium result of 2007 for a Bridgestone-shod rider. The battling Brazilian bumped Ducati Corse’s Casey Stoner into fourth spot with just three laps of the race remaining. Stoner retains his lead at the head of the championship but sees his advantage cut to nine points after Valentino Rossi’s victory in front of 85,000 passionate Italian fans this afternoon. Behind Stoner followed a train of Bridgestone-shod riders with Suzuki’s John Hopkins finishing fifth, his third top five result of the year so far, Honda Gresini’s Toni Elias in sixth, Ducati’s Loris Capirossi in seventh, French GP winner Chris Vermeulen in eighth and Italian Honda Gresini rider Marco Melandri in ninth. The weather has been the most influential factor this weekend with dry practice time restricted to just two cool morning sessions. Nevertheless, Bridgestone was able to identify the most suitable compounds for this afternoon’s race and the performance level, while not being able to help its riders challenge for Mugello victory, was still on podium pace. Akira Nishimura Bridgestone Corporation General Manager Motorcycle Sport Department “An excellent performance by Alex Barros this afternoon was rightly rewarded with his debut podium position on Bridgestone tyres, something that is very pleasing. He becomes the seventh Bridgestone-shod rider to take a podium result this season which shows how versatile our tyres are with each of the five teams we are supplying this season. Congratulations to the entire Pramac d’Antin team for an exceptional result and to Ducati for a podium in their home GP. Although he missed out on the podium, Casey Stoner’s fourth place keeps him at the head of the championship at this still early stage of the season while many other riders were able to score valuable championship points this afternoon.” Atsushi Tomura Bridgestone Motorsport General Manager, Motorcycle Race Tyre Development “This weekend has really been conditioned by the unsettled weather conditions that reduced the amount of running we had in full dry conditions, but I think we can be pleased with the consistency of our tyres this afternoon. We perhaps missed a bit of performance compared to the two leading riders in the middle stages of the race, but we demonstrated that our range of medium compounds were capable of challenging for the podium in Mugello, as shown by Alex Barros’s third place result. We would like to thank our teams for another positive technical collaboration in such difficult circumstances this weekend.” Alex Barros Pramac d’Antin 3rd Position (+5.956s from race winner) “I am of course really happy to have achieved my first podium of this season and it has come at the perfect time. Mugello is the home race for Ducati and Pramac, so I am pleased to be able to give them a fitting result. I would like to say thanks to the entire Pramac d’Antin team for a very good job and to Bridgestone for providing me with tyres capable of scoring the podium. After the fourth place we got in Turkey, I have had my share of bad luck in recent races, so it is good to get such a competitive result, also at a circuit I like very much. Now, I hope we can continue to show our competitiveness for the rest of the season.” Bridgestone Race Results Front Rear P3 Alex Barros Pramac d’Antin 42m48.341s +5.956s Slick Hard Slick Medium P4 Casey Stoner Ducati 42m48.397s +6.012s Slick Hard Slick Medium P5 John Hopkins Suzuki 42m55.629s +13.244s Slick Medium Slick Medium D6 Toni Elias Honda Gresini 43m01.640s +19.255s Slick Hard Slick Medium P7 Loris Capirossi Ducati 43m02.031s +19.646s Slick Hard Slick Medium P8 Chris Vermeulen Suzuki 43m05.195s +22.810s Slick Medium Slick Medium P9 Marco Melandri Honda Gresini 43m05.222s +22.837s Slick Hard Slick Medium P11 Alex Hofmann Pramac d’Antin 43m07.166s +24.781s Slick Hard Slick Medium P16 Olivier Jacque Kawasaki 43m27.602s +45.217s Slick Medium Slick Medium DNF Randy de Puniet Kawasaki 2m00.523s +22 laps Slick Medium Slick Medium Weather: Dry. Air 24°C, Track 29°C, Humidity 20% More, from a press release issued by Team Roberts: IMPORTANT LESSONS FOR DOUBLED-UP TEAM ROBERTS Mugello, Italy June 3, 2007: Kenny Roberts Jr. finished 17th in today’s Italian GP, and brother Kurtis in his first GP since 2005 retired on the fourth of 23 laps. But in spite of the disappointing results, the only independent constructors in MotoGP racing could mark the weekend as an important occasion. With two riders for the first time since 2005 doubling the feed-back to the engineers, they believe they have been able to isolate problems that have prevented the KR machine achieving the competitive form of last year. Younger brother Kurtis has been drafted in for this and the next race, to provide more input and data to team engineers. The Honda-powered hybrid, built in the Team Roberts factory in England, is now in a position to resume progress, according to team principal Kenny Roberts “¦ although only after “major surgery”. It will take time, and the season is entering an intensive phase, but Roberts hopes that after the summer break new chassis designs will be ready. Today’s race, the sixth of the season, was run on a dry track after two days of rain, in front of more than 85,000 passionate spectators. Five times MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) rewarded his home fans with his second win of the six-race-old season, with Honda’s Dani Pedrosa second. KENNY ROBERTS Jr 17th position It was a very quiet race for me. I never saw anybody after about the first or second turn. I rode as hard as I could, and ran a 1’53.7. I’d done a 1’53.5 the first day, and for the first half of the race I wasn’t trying to finish, just to match that time. We have all the switches on the bike to alter things, so I played with them all race. I turned the traction control pretty much off, and messed with the engine braking, and started getting back towards the 1’53s. Then on the second-last lap I pushed the front in the fast chicane, and pretty much tried to fall down. On the last lap I saw the track invasion, with people coming over the retaining wall, so after the last corner I didn’t even attempt to go down the straightaway with any speed. If I hadn’t seen them “¦ well, you could hurt a lot of good people with this bike. KURTIS ROBERTS With the two hours we had in the dry, we took a gamble on some set-up stuff, and we made a plan not to waste mileage on the motor if it didn’t work. We need to save that stuff. I was behind Kenny going into the last corner and I about ran off the race-track, not even going fast. After that I was having trouble holding the line, so I pulled in to save the motor. Hopefully Barcelona will be good weather all weekend. We have a feeling now what the bike does, and now we can move forwards. KENNY ROBERTS Team Principal We’ve isolated some of the problems. Kurtis helped a lot. Now we’ve got to build a new chassis. This is the first 800 we’ve made, and we missed the target. What we know now we should have known three or four races ago, but everything went good in testing, and the second race looked okay. From then on we’ve just been fighting a certain problem to do with weight distribution that we couldn’t isolate until now. There’s a major problem in the chassis, and I don’t think it’s going to be a quick fix. But we’re starting to understand now what we need to make the thing turn. We’ve already started redesigning, and tomorrow it’s going to be back to the factory and find out how fast we can turn it around. We probably won’t have two of them until after the summer break. We got a late start on building the 800 and we’re not racing a bunch of dummies. It just shows how difficult it is. More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki Racing Team: KAWASAKI’S HIGH HOPES DASHED BY MUGELLO ANTI-CLIMAX The Kawasaki racing team faced disappointment at today’s MotoGP round from Mugello, after Olivier Jacque finished just outside the points and his teammate, Randy de Puniet, crashed out on the second lap. The team were hoping for a continuation of the rain that has disrupted practice and qualifying all weekend to help their riders, both of whom are still suffering the after-effects of recent crashes, to go the distance. But, although heavy cloud hovered over the Italian circuit, the rain held off and, despite both riders having qualified in the top ten on the grid, the hoped for results failed to materialise. Jacque, starting from the front of the second row, initially got off to a good start but soon lost ground, which saw him swallowed up as the field stormed towards the first corner. Unfortunately, he never managed to achieve the pace that would have seen him nearer the front-runners but he completed the race distance of 120.635 km, happy with the set up of the bike and the performance and longevity of his Bridgestone tyres. It was a heroic ride that wasn’t entirely comfortable for Jacque, still weakened by an injury to his right forearm after a crash in Shanghai. His efforts were exemplary, given the lack of strength in the arm, and he will continue to work on increasing that strength before the next Grand Prix in Spain. De Puniet had a bad start from seventh on the grid and didn’t have time to get into his stride and progress back through the field before crashing on lap two at the tricky Arrabbiata curve. Fortunately, the impact did not affect his previously injured right shoulder and, although his left knee took a battering, he will be fit to race next weekend. The time at Mugello has proved a challenging test for Kawasaki’s revised Ninja ZX-RR engine, with the increased power reflected in the impressive top speeds achieved by both riders during the weekend. As the season progresses, it is becoming increasingly obvious that Kawasaki’s MotoGP bid is certainly in the running when it comes to top end power. The huge crowd, gathered at the stunning Mugello track in rural Tuscany, provided a magical, party atmosphere in what is, for many riders, their favourite date in the MotoGP calendar. For Kawasaki, the festivities never quite took off but they look forward to next weekend, when all the teams will congregate at the Circuit de Catalunya in northern Spain for the next round of the season, where both Jacque and de Puniet will be hoping to pick up more championship points. Olivier Jacque 16th Position “I finished the race, which was our priority, and I was surprised to be able to keep the rhythm, but now I am really exhausted. I made a good start, but when I shifted to second and third gear many riders overtook me. Maybe I used the first one for too long, but the result was that I dropped from fourth to twelfth position on the first lap. Finally, the race was in dry conditions and this track is really demanding as well, so after seven laps I started to lose the strength in the arm. I couldn’t be precise and I didn’t want to take any risks and, instead, save energy for the rest of the race. I was sweating a lot for the last laps. I tried to overtake Guintoli and Tamada. Unfortunately, they were stronger than I was on the brakes at the end of the straight and I couldn’t take advantage of our engine. This is the first step and I am sure that Barcelona is going to be better.” Randy De Puniet DNF “This weekend has been far from the best, but the race was the definite low point. Firstly, I got a bad start and lost seven positions in one go – I think I had the same problem as Olivier, but we will need to check this. Anyway, I was trying to recover places as quickly as possible, before the leading group had a chance to get away. I overtook Nakano and Olivier and I was lining up Hofmann when I lost the front in the Arrabbiata. I went in wide, got off the racing line mid-corner and then lost the front when I hit the bumps on the outside line. Luckily I didn’t do any additional damage to my injured shoulder, but I do have some pain in my left knee, but this shouldn’t be a problem for Catalunya next week. I can only apologise to everyone in the team, and I leave here determined to make amends in Barcelona in seven days time.” Michael Bartholemy Kawasaki Competition Manager “We knew ahead of this weekend that both riders were not fully fit, and that this would make things difficult for both of them around a physically demanding circuit like Mugello. However, we weren’t expecting things to be quite as difficult as they proved today! Randy lost places at the start and then crashed while trying to get back on terms with the leading group. He needs to look at how to improve his race start, because if he can arrive at the first corner in the same position in which he started the race, then he won’t have to push so hard and take so many risks on the opening lap. He also needs to start finishing races. The old saying ‘to finish first, first you must finish’ may be something of a cliché, but that doesn’t make it any less true. I am happy for Olivier as he managed to finish on his return to racing after a two-race lay-off. Obviously he is still not fully fit, but I’m confident he will improve further in Barcelona, where I hope Randy will also be able to secure a good result.” More, from a press release issued by Fiat Yamaha: 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: 1st Time: 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: 12th Time: +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 Fiat Yamaha 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!” More, from a press release issued by Dorna Communications: Rossi hits MotoGP field for six at Mugello Gran Premio d’Italia Alice – June 3rd Report Day 3 Rossi victorious at Mugello motogp Valentino Rossi took his sixth consecutive home victory at the Gran Premio d’Italia Alice, sending a message out to the rest of the MotoGP field that they should doubt ‘The Doctor’ at their own peril. After a poor start, the five-time MotoGP World Champion moved up into first position on lap eight and never looked back, to take the win and cut the gap between himself and championship leader Casey Stoner to just nine points. One rider who took off well from the line was Dani Pedrosa, who led the race early on and looked as if he was set to spoil the party atmosphere with three Spanish victories in the day’s trio of races. Although he threatened Rossi at the midway point of the race, a series of quick laps from the former champion coupled with Pedrosa’s running slightly wide when attempting to overtake, left him unable to challenge for the lead in the final stages. Returning to the MotoGP podium for the first time since the 2005 British Grand Prix, Alex Barros rounded off the rostrum positions with a tremendous ride. The Brazilian had the fastest top speed of any rider onboard his satellite Desmosedici GP7, and finally moved up to third ahead of factory rider Casey Stoner on lap 20. Holding on as the young pretender attempted his comeback, Barros gave the Pramac d’Antin Ducati team their first top three finish of the 800cc era and denied the factory team of a home podium. Stoner holds onto his championship lead after finishing fourth, with Toni Elias almost nicking fifth from John Hopkins in the final moments but just missing out. Outside the top six, Loris Capirossi had a disappointing closing third after having led the race early on. He had beaten Stoner in the first Ducati factory head-to-head on the Mugello straight, but slipped down the order after relinquishing his grip on the top spot. Chris Vermeulen, Marco Melandri and MotoGP World Champion Nicky Hayden completed the top ten. 250cc Alvaro Bautista followed up his first 250cc pole position with a maiden victory in the class, in the dying moments of a race which had everything that the thousands of fans gathered at Mugello could have expected and more. The Spaniard had a ride that was assured and risky in equal measures, and a last lap manoeuvre on Jorge Lorenzo may mean that the likeable 22 year old has made himself his first enemy in the quarter litre category. Ducking inside the reigning 250cc World Champion, Bautista forced Lorenzo wide onto the slippery artificial grass; something on which not even a rider the calibre of the Spain’s No1 Aprilia rider could successfully stay upright. The 125cc title holder then put the pressure on team-mate Alex de Angelis before pulling away for a win by less than a tenth of a second. A protest against the overtaking move was put in by Lorenzo’s team, however whilst Race Direction decided the protest was acceptable, it was dismissed as ‘unfounded’ by officials. The rostrum places were rounded off by Hector Barbera, who showed both sides of his riding at Mugello. Taking the lead on lap eight, the Spaniard’s aggressive style was close to the limit on a number of occasions as he tried to pull away, and he eventually ran wide to all but end his chances of victory. Pushing back up after dropping out of the podium places, Barbera took advantage of Lorenzo’s late tumble to equal his best result of the year. Home rider Andrea Dovizioso, displaying a special Italian ‘World Cup tribute’ livery and leathers, was unable to get onto the podium but cut Lorenzo’s championship lead to 27 points. Early race leader Thomas Luthi was just behind him in an all-Aprilia top five, ahead of Repsol Honda duo Shuhei Aoyama and Julian Simon. Lorenzo managed to pick his bike up to complete the race in eighth, having previously worked his way up from twentieth and creating his own controversy with a pass on Mika Kallio which saw him take the exhaust off the KTM machine. The top ten was rounded off by Marco Simoncelli and Anthony West, whilst the classification was propped up by returning Roberto Locatelli. The Italian received a hero’s welcome as he participated in his first race since his serious crash at Jerez, and showed incredible spirit to complete the race when extremely fatigued. 125cc Hector Faubel took the victory in an incredibly close 125cc race at Mugello, coming out of nowhere to earn the win that puts him on top of the overall classification. Faubel started the race from pole position by no means a guarantee of a podium finish- and was embroiled in the battle for the triumph all the way. After 20 laps of frenetic action the Spaniard seemed destined to finish third, but somehow found the extra power needed to overtake both team-mate Sergio Gadea and Simone Corsi. The Aspar rider’s second victory another example of his expert slipstreaming first demonstrated in Qatar- means that a run of different winners from every race has come to an end in the 125cc class. Faubel is now the category leader with an advantage of seven points over team-mate Gabor Talmacsi. Gadea had a magnificent ride from 20th on the grid, and himself appeared from nowhere to take the lead at the start of the final lap. The winner of the previous round at Le Mans did not seem too distraught at being pipped on the line, having surely expected little of the race. Just 0.060 separated the podium finishers, one of the closest margins in history even for the notoriously competitive 125cc class. Simone Corsi completed the rostrum places, attempting numerous inventive overtaking manoeuvres at his home circuit and diving inside Mattia Pasini in a number of close calls. Gabor Talmacsi finished fourth, and lies second in the overall standings on 95 points. He crossed the line ahead of Tomoyoshi Koyama and Polaris World rider Pasini, who was visibly displeased with his position after having led the race for an extended period. Sandro Cortese, Bradley Smith, Pol Espargaro and Lorenzo Zanneti completed the top ten, with two regular top six riders crashing out in the latter stages of the race. Lukas Pesek, who started the race as World Championship leader, left without points to his name after crashing out on the final corner, whilst Raffaele de Rosa had to push his bike over the line after going off track. More, from a press release issued by Marlboro Ducati: STONER A FRACTION OFF THE ITALIAN GP PODIUM, CAPIROSSI 7TH Ducati Marlboro Team riders Casey Stoner and Loris Capirossi finished today’s Italian Grand Prix in a close fourth place and seventh place to retain their advantage in the riders’, constructors’ and teams’ World Championships as the 2007 MotoGP series reached one-third distance The pair enjoyed a brilliant start to the race, World Championship leader and pole-position man Stoner completing the opening lap in first place, just ahead of Capirossi. Stoner led the first three laps, Capirossi the next two, but then both men slipped back slightly. Stoner spent much of the remainder of the race in third place, ending up fourth after fellow Ducati rider Alex Barros went past in the closing stages. Capirossi, racing for the first time with a new engine spec in his GP7, battled long and hard for sixth place, crossing the line in seventh spot. CASEY STONER, 4th place, World Championship leader on 115 points “That was a very difficult race. After warm-up we knew we would struggle a bit but I thought maybe we could make the podium. We were really close to a top-three result but we didn’t quite manage it. Anyway, I’d like to say thank you to the team because we tried everything we could this weekend but unfortunately the conditions weren’t perfect for us, with so much rain during practice. We learned some more lessons that will make us come back stronger at Barcelona next weekend. The biggest difficulty we had today was turning in the long corners and we also lacked a bit of traction. But, as I said, we should be able to solve these problems before the next race and score a better result.” LORIS CAPIROSSI, 7th place, 7th in World Championship on 47 points “I gave everything I had today and things were going well at the start. Then I had two big moments, first at Arrabbiata 1, then at Arrabbiata 2. I lost the front and risked falling, so that lost me some confidence in the front and I wasn’t able to maintain such a fast pace, I had to slow my rhythm. Unfortunately, the strange weather conditions during the weekend didn’t allow us to work the way we wanted to on my new engine spec. I used the new spec today because Ducati had done such a good job in giving me more rideability but we lacked some speed. Anyway, it was good to be up front again and we will work to improve some more during practice at Barcelona next weekend”. CLAUDIO DOMENICALI, CEO Ducati Corse “The race didn’t go as we had expected, we were aiming for a better result, even though we had two Ducatis in the first four. The weekend’s extremely changeable weather conditions didn’t allow us to find the ideal set-up to allow our riders to get the maximum from their bikes. In particular the bike/tyre combination wasn’t perfect for the faster turns, which are fundamental to fast lap times at Mugello. Anyway, Loris was very competitive in the early stages, and we will continue working with him to get the best set-up for his new engine spec at Barcelona. Once again I was amazed by Casey’s coolness and determination in getting so close to the podium. He confirmed once more that he’s consistent as well as fast, and quite able to manage a race when he cannot fight for the win.” More, from a press release issued by Honda: DANI PEDROSA RIDES HARD FOR SECOND AS ROSSI WINS IN ITALY What promised to be a barnstormer of a MotoGP race in the earlier stages of this 23-lap race proved to be ultimately less tight than imagined as Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) led Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC212V) to the flag with Alex Barros (Ducati) third. With a capacity crowd of 85,000 enjoying sunshine after rain threatened to appear but held off, the field left the line in a blur of noise and colour to begin one of the more celebrated events on the 18-race calendar. Casey Stoner (Ducati) led from pole position into turn one with Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki) on his tail and Alex Barros in the mix with Stoner’s team-mate Loris Capirossi holding an early fourth place before he shot past Barros. Marco Melandri (Gresini Honda RC212V) then took Capirossi for fourth. On lap two Melandri sped to third and Pedrosa began his charge by relieving Vermeulen of fourth. Rossi meanwhile was seventh with John Hopkins (Suzuki) behind him and reigning World Champion Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda RC212V) tracking the American Suzuki man. By lap five Capirossi had edged past teammate Stoner for the lead and the home team duo led Melandri and Pedrosa over the line at the end of that lap. But Dani then took them both on lap six to lead the race, disposing of Stoner at Arrabiatta 2. Rossi, ominously, was now third. Rossi moved up to second at turn four and as he closed on Dani, the young Spaniard was clearly riding right on the edge as he hovered his left foot over the tarmac under braking. On lap nine Rossi made his bid for the lead at the downhill right Scarperia turn. There were now two sets of three riders at the front: Rossi, Pedrosa and Stoner, one, two and three, Hopkins, Barros and Capirossi lying fourth, fifth and sixth. Carlos Checa (LCR Honda RC212V) slid off (unhurt) and out the reckoning while trying to break into the top ten. Rossi was now riding clear of the determined Dani who has rarely looked as ragged as the bike moved around under him, so hard was he trying. By lap 14 Rossi’s advantage was 1.9 seconds and Capirossi was dropping away from Barros in fourth. The Italian trailed the Brazilian by four seconds at the end of the lap. Nothing then changed except Barros overhauling Stoner for third place on lap 21, the Australian trying gamely to stick with him to no avail. Toni Elias (Gresini Honda RC212V) rode to a dogged sixth place from his 15th place on the starting grid, while Melandri slipped to ninth at the flag, and Nicky came in tenth. Dani said: “My start was very good and I was able to pass many riders. Then in the first corner when I touched the throttle I had a very big slide and they came past again. My performance was really strong from the beginning of the race until the middle and I was able to recover and take the lead. Then I started to have the same issues as in some of the other races this year. I could see that Valentino was getting away slowly but as I tried to speed up I was getting slides from both wheels, so I couldn’t push the tyres any harder and I had to close the throttle a little bit and settle for second.” Toni Elias was pleased enough with sixth and said: “Sixth place at Mugello is a good result, especially having started from 15th. The team did a great job and in the warm-up we took a big step forward with the set-up. I got a good start and tried to make up position but unfortunately the front tyre choice was a little too soft for today’s track conditions and after a few laps I couldn’t push as hard as I wanted to. I’m happy though and I’m looking forward to racing in front of my home fans in Barcelona next Sunday.” Marco Melandri said: “I got a good start and I was flying over the first few laps but then I started to struggle. The bike was skipping around and from being in third place I dropped back to ninth. I’m disappointed because this is a special race for me. We’ve had this problem to a varying degree since the start of the season and at the moment we can’t come up with a solution.” A disappointed Nicky commented, “You put yourself in a hole when you qualify in 13th and that really didn’t help me out much today. It was a tough race. I got a decent start and on the first lap I picked off a few riders but really I just didn’t have the race pace to go with the lead guys. In the last couple of laps I had a pretty good scrap with Vermeulen and Melandri but I was a lot further back than I would have liked to have been. It definitely wasn’t a great day for us. Basically I had an issue with the set-up today and the machine just didn’t feel planted in a lot of the fast corners here.” Shinya Nakano (Konica Minolta Honda RC212V) finished 13th and said of his race: “My start wasn’t too bad and from then until the middle of race my lap time was pretty good and I had a good feeling with the bike. I felt that the race setting we had on the bike was the best of the weekend, but then from the middle of the race we suffered from a chatter problem once more and I had to reduce my corner speed, which is when Colin Edwards overtook me.” Kenny Roberts (Roberts KR212V) finished in 17th place, while his brother Kurtis failed to finish. Kenny, who encountered fans on track at the flag, said: “It was a very quiet race for me. I never saw anybody after about the first or second turn. I rode as hard as I could. On the last lap I saw the track invasion, with people coming over the retaining wall, so after the last corner I didn’t even attempt to go down the straightaway with any speed. If I hadn’t seen them. well, you could hurt people.” The luckless Checa said: “This is a big disappointment. I was trying to recover some positions and I had Colin and Shinya ahead, but it was difficult, I didn’t have a comfortable feeling overall. I was pushing too much trying for a better result and I crashed. My intention was not to crash, but when the feeling is not right you should listen to the feeling, and try to understand. But now we must look to a positive weekend in Barcelona for the next race.” Stoner still heads the World Championship standings with 115 points to Rossi’s 106. Dani in third has 82 points and Marco in fourth has 68 as the paddock heads to Catalunya for next weekend’s race. The 250cc race was a thriller. Alvaro Bautista won by less than a tenth of a second from his team-mate Alex de Angelis, with Hector Barbera in third (all Aprilia). There were incidents aplenty – perhaps none more significant than Bautista clashing with Lorenzo on the final lap with Lorenzo falling and remounting to finish eighth. Tom Luthi (Aprilia) led into turn one from the lights, but Bautista soon headed the pack as it sorted itself out into an early race order. By lap six Bautista, Barbera, de Angelis, Andrea Dovizioso (Scot Honda RS250RW) and by now Lorenzo, who started from 20th on the grid, were out front. The intensity of this confrontation showed when Barbera, who was second, ran wide and onto the grass on lap 13. Dovi then began to drop off the pace as the final tours of this track approached (he was 3.46 seconds off the lead trio by lap 19 of this 21-lap race. Lorenzo lead the final lap into turn one until de Angelis slid up the inside on the brakes and as the threesome of de Angelis, Lorenzo and Bautista filed into the chicane, Bautista straight-lined it up the inside of Lorenzo. They touched and Lorenzo went wide to lose traction on the infield and fall. De Angelis then looked in control but Bautista was on a mission and at the final turn he peeled in late on the outside and squeezed up the inside of the Italian on the exit to out-drag him over the line and record his first ever 250cc win. Dovizioso said: “The team have worked really, really hard for me this year and I have been riding hard. The chassis and suspension have been good but I have to ride so hard that my injured leg begins to hurt. We need to find some more power soon.” Sixth-placed Aoyama said: “The race was difficult in the beginning because of the full fuel tank. Then as the race went on and the fuel load decreased I began to get a good feeling with the bike and from the middle to the end of the race I got better and better. Four of us were racing for fifth place; me, Julian (Simon) and Luthi – but I made a mistake on the last lap and finished sixth. But this is my best result of the season and now I’m looking forward to the next race at Barcelona.” Julian Simon (Repsol Honda RS250RW) finished seventh. He said: “The race was very difficult. My start was not so bad and I tried to hang onto the first group but had no choice but to run with the second group. The bike was OK, engine not so bad, and the chassis was good. The only real problem I had was a sliding rear tyre. I really enjoyed the race – a lot of overtaking – real fun, even if the result was not so good.” The World Championship table looks like this: Lorenzo 128 points, Dovizioso 101, de Angelis 95, Bautista 89 and Barbera with 63. The 125cc honours went to Hector Faubel who squeezed home to win by just 0.02 seconds from team-mate Sergio Gadea with local man Simone Corsi third (all Aprilia). It was a classic 125cc encounter with a ten-rider lead group slipstreaming on the straight and carving each other up through the turns. Tommy Koyama (KTM) got the jump on the rest of the grid from the start, but it wasn’t long before he faded as Gabor Talmacsi (Aprilia) took the lead only for Faubel to then take control of matters. Mike di Meglio (Scot Honda RS125R), who qualified on the front row crashed out of contention on lap four, while his team-mate Dino Lombardi had succumbed to a fall on lap one. By lap six a ten-rider group was covered by a mere 1.5 seconds. Faubel led, but the positions at this early stage were largely meaningless with 14-laps to go. Of more importance was Bradley Smith’s (Repsol Honda RS125R) effort to get on terms with the leading group. Smith rode a mature race to finish eighth at the flag having tried everything to haul in the lead group. He will be in good shape to get properly on terms with the main men next weekend in Catalunya and then at his home race at Donington Park a week after that. Smith said, “It’s been a bad weekend also a long and difficult race. My start was OK but in the first few laps I made too many mistakes and the leading group was gone. I tried to stay on the back of them and I found a good rhythm but the gap between myself and the group was up -and-down, we were all running the same laps times. Not a positive result but you have to finish to take points.” Faubel leads the World Championship standings with 102 points to Talmacsi’s 95, with Lukas Pesek (Derbi) who crashed on the last lap here on 91 points. Simone Corsi has 71 points in fourth overall, while Smith lies eighth with 44. HONDA RIDER TEAM QUOTES MotoGP. Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 2nd. “I am very happy to be back on the podium today and this is a good result for me, especially starting from eighth on the grid. My start was very good and I was able to pass many riders. Then in the first corner when I touched the throttle I had a very big slide and they came past again. My performance was really strong from the beginning of the race until the middle and I was able to recover and take the lead. Then I started to have the same issues as in some of the other races this year. I could see that Valentino was getting away slowly but as I tried to speed up I was getting slides from both wheels, so I couldn’t push the tyres any harder and I had to close the throttle a little bit and settle for second. Still, this is a useful result for us and we were lucky it stayed dry today. The last race was also good and now we have some good momentum going into my home race at Barcelona next weekend.” Toni Elias, Gresini Honda: 6th.”Mugello is a good result, especially having started from fifteenth. The team did a great job and in the warm-up we took a big step forward with the set-up. I got a good start and tried to make up position but unfortunately the front tyre choice was a little too soft for today’s track conditions and after a few laps I couldn’t push as hard as I wanted to. I’m happy though and I’m looking forward to racing in front of my home fans in Barcelona next Sunday.” Marco Melandri, Gresini Honda: 9th. “I got a good start and I was flying over the first few laps but then I started to struggle. The bike was skipping around and from being in third place I dropped back to ninth. I’m disappointed because this is a special race for me. We’ve had this problem to a varying degree since the start of the season and at the moment we can’t come up with a solution.” Nicky Hayden, Repsol Honda: 10th.”You put yourself in a hole when you qualify in 13th and that really didn’t help me out much today. It was a tough race. I got a decent start and on the first lap I picked off a few riders but really I just didn’t have the race pace to go with the lead guys. In the last couple of laps I had a pretty good scrap with Vermeulen and Melandri but I was a lot further back than I would have liked to have been. It definitely wasn’t a great day for us. Basically I had an issue with the set-up today and the machine just didn’t feel planted in a lot of the fast corners here. The balance wasn’t right and every time I tried to push harder I was right on the limit and had a few moments. The team and me are going to be working hard to improve things for the next race in Catalunya.” Shinya Nakano, Konica Minolta Honda: 13th. “My start wasn’t too bad and from then until the middle of race my lap time was pretty good and I had a good feeling with the bike. I felt that the race setting we had on the bike was the best of the weekend, but then from the middle of the race we suffered from a chatter problem once more and I had to reduce my corner speed, which is when Colin Edwards overtook me. From there I was on my own with a gap behind me, so even though I couldn’t push any harder, I wanted to hang on for some points. We will now look at the data and hopefully improve in time for next week’s race.” Kenny Roberts Jnr, KR212V: 17th.”It was a very quiet race for me. I never saw anybody after about the first or second turn. I rode as hard as I could, and ran a 1’53. 7. I’d done a 1’53. 5 the first day, and for the first half of the race I wasn’t trying to finish, just to match that time. We have all the switches on the bike to alter things, so I played with them all race. I turned the traction control pretty much off, and messed with the engine braking, and started getting back towards the 1’53s. Then on the second-last lap I pushed the front in the fast chicane, and pretty much tried to fall down. On the last lap I saw the track invasion, with people coming over the retaining wall, so after the last corner I didn’t even attempt to go down the straightaway with any speed. If I hadn’t seen them . well, you could hurt a lot of good people with this bike.” Kurtis Roberts, KR212V: dnf – handling problems.”With the two hours we had in the dry, we took a gamble on some set-up stuff, and we made a plan not to waste mileage on the motor if it didn’t work. We need to save that stuff. I was behind Kenny going into the last corner and I about ran off the racetrack, not even going fast. After that I was having trouble holding the line, so I pulled in to save the motor. Hopefully Barcelona will be good weather all weekend. We have a feeling now what the bike does, and now we can move forwards.” Kenny Roberts Snr – Team Principal, “We’ve isolated some of the problems. Kurtis helped a lot. Now we’ve got to build a new chassis. This is the first 800 we’ve made, and we missed the target. What we know now we should have known three or four races ago, but everything went good in testing, and the second race looked okay. From then on we’ve just been fighting a certain problem to do with weight distribution that we couldn’t isolate until now. There’s a major problem in the chassis, and I don’t think it’s going to be a quick fix. But we’re starting to understand now what we need to make the thing turn. We’ve already started redesigning, and tomorrow it’s going to be back to the factory and find out how fast we can turn it around. We probably won’t have two of them until after the summer break. We got a late start on building the 800 and we’re not racing a bunch of dummies. It just shows how difficult it is.” Carlos Checa, LCR Honda: dnf – crash.”This is a big disappointment. I was trying to recover some positions and I had Colin and Shinya ahead, but I was quite difficult, I didn’t have comfortable feeling overall. I was pushing too much, trying for a better result, and I crashed. My intention was not to crash, but when the feeling is not right you should listen to the feeling, and try to understand. But now we must look to a positive weekend in Barcelona for the next race.” More, from a press release issued by Michelin: ROSSI & PEDROSA SCORE MICHELIN ONE-TWO Valentino Rossi (Fiat Yamaha Team YZR-M1-Michelin) and Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC212V-Michelin) dominated this afternoon’s thrilling Italian Grand Prix to give Michelin a superb one-two finish. Rossi scored his sixth successive Mugello victory using a new rear construction slick that Michelin has been developing over the past six weeks. The pair’s emphatic performance came despite a difficult start to the race ? Rossi completed the first lap down in seventh place while Pedrosa had only qualified eighth in yesterday’s rain-lashed qualifying session. But the Italian and the Spaniard came through to dominate from one-third distance, Rossi winning by three seconds, Pedrosa setting the fastest lap. “That is a fantastic result for us,” said Jean-Philippe Weber, Michelin’s director of motorcycle racing. “The race wasn’t easy because Valentino and Dani weren’t up front at the start but they were able to fight their way to the front and then break away from their rivals. We were a little worried about the Ducati’s top speed here but Valentino and Dani had better performance through the corners to overcome that straight-line disadvantage. “Valentino’s win confirms that we are working in the right direction with our new rear casing, he used a new rear that he tested at Le Mans after the French GP. Dani used a softer casing today, according to his preference, but we will talk to him to get his feedback to see if he wants to use something different next time. Each of our riders needs their own solution to suit their riding styles and machine character. “Our 16-inch front also worked well today, all our riders are very confident in this tire, because it improves corner-entry performance which is especially important here with so many downhill corners. “It has been a difficult weekend, with so much rain during practice that prevented us from trying all the slick solutions that we would have liked to test, but in the end we had a good race performance. Anyway, Dani was fastest in dry practice, so we were quite confident for today. “Today’s win is a big boost for us, now we will keep thinking hard and working hard to bring the best tire solutions to Barcelona next weekend.”
