MotoGP: Mugello

31 May 2009 – 1:52pm

Mugello is a race curcuit made for Valentino Rossi there would be tonnes of pressure on him to finish well in this race with it been his home circuit and not to mention getting 0 points in the previous race at Le Mans and if he were to win today he would reach his 99th race win, 1 away from the landmark 100.

The race started in wet conditions and it was up to the rider to decide at what point in the race to change to dry/slick tyres.

Toseland made the jump to slicks first and it didn’t pay off too well at the start, however Dovisiozo made it at the perfect time and ended up leading the race ahead of Melandri and Rossi, however Stoner on the Ducati started closing in on Dovisiozo but when Rossi decided to pit he ended up in 5th place (was 2nd before pitting) and had a hell of a lot of work to do.

Pedrosa crashed with his already injured hip it seems to me like his championship challenge will be over for this year, on the same lap Stoner pulled a full 1.4 seconds out of Dovizioso and overtook him to take 1st place and if that wasn’t bad enough for Dovizioso, Capirossi overtook him on the same lap just a few corners after Stoner.

The laps went by and Toseland actually got up to 6th place! However Randy got back through on the next lap. Rossi chose the harder tyre so in theory towards the end of the race his lap times would be faster than the soft tyres as the soft ones would be worn down more and the theory was true, Rossi started putting the hammer down with 6 laps remaining Rossi was in 5th place behind team mate Lorenzo.

The final lap started with Stoner, Lorenzo and Rossi in positions 1, 2 and 3 and it ended that way too, however Dovizioso was so close to Rossi on the pit straight, also a great ride for both Tech 3 riders Colin Edwards and James Toseland finishing in 6th and 7th.

Sadly Rossi didn’t get his 99th race win it will have to wait for the next race in 2 weeks time held at Catalunya in Spain, Rossi didn’t look a happy chap coming in 3rd place but I’m sure he’ll make his mark at the next race.