Veddy, veddy happy, yes.

Various and sundry PR accounts from today's action at Mugello:

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.

Rossi:

"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."

Edwards:

"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."

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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 tyre, 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 tyre solutions to Barcelona next weekend."

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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.
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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

Atsushi Tomura - Bridgestone Motorsport - General Manager, Motorcycle Race Tyre Development

Alex Barros - Pramac d'Antin - 3rd Position (+5.956s from race winner)

Road Racing World Championship Grand Prix

Italian Grand Prix: decision of the Race Direction

On Sunday 3 June, after the 250cc race, Mr Dani Amatrian, Team Manager of the Team Fortuna Aprilia, lodged a protest against rider n° 19 Alvaro Bautista for anti-sportive behaviour towards the rider of his team, n 1 Jorge Lorenzo.

After watching various images of the incident and listening to the declaration of all the people who attended the hearing, according to Art. 3.3.1.2 of the 2007 FIM Road Racing World Championship Grand Prix Regulations, the Race Direction has decided that the protest was acceptable but unfounded.

No appeal has been lodged.

The decision of the Race Direction is final.

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HONDA RACING INFORMATION

Italian Grand Prix at Mugello Sunday June 3, 2007

Crowd figures: race day 85,000, weekend total 128,000.
Weather: Morning overcast, afternoon sunny.
Temperature: 24 degrees.

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."

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Sunday Jun 3 2007
Italian GP - Race

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."

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