Valentino Rossi was left behind on the start and found himself in twelfth place at the end of lap 1, and motivated by the enthusiastic crowd, he caught the group of riders in front of him and climbed to sixth place. The Italian had a better pace in the race than he had all weekend, thanks to a setup change that his technicians made before the warm-up.
"We have a bike that is different in many aspects from the one we started the season with," Rossi said. "We're aware that it needs to undergo further development from a technical point of view, but even at this stage it has shown that it has a good margin of improvement just with setup. The weather didn't help us at Assen, and the same was true here. We had limited time to work this weekend, so once again we made a significant setup change on Sunday morning.
"It was a step forward, and in the race I was able to have a better rhythm than in practice, although the improved behavior in corners was accompanied by a small loss of grip. Anyway, we think it's a good direction to try in the future with our setup. It's certainly a difficult situation, but to come here to Mugello and see all these flags and fans cheering always provides a big thrill and gives us motivation to return to the front," the Italian concluded.
Hector Barbera put in one of his best rides for the season to grab seventh ahead of the returning Dani Pedrosa.
Pedrosa knew his fitness would be an issue, especially in the heat, but he was encouraged that he hadn't lost any of the speed which had taken him to podium positions in the three races he completed at the beginning of the season.
"I'm very happy with my performance and the result was worth it in the end, even if I'm still far from 100% fit. Historically in the past, when I have tried to go back racing after an injury I wasn't able to finish the race and today I managed to. I see that even being out for a quite a long period of time, I haven't lost the speed, so I'm sure that I'll back on top when my physical condition improves," Pedrosa said.
Americans Colin Edwards and Nicky Hayden occupied the 9th and 10th places ahead of Hiroshi Aoyama. Karel Abraham, Alvaro Bautista, Randy De Puniet and Toni Elias competed the finishers.
Cal Crutchlow was the only non finisher when he withdrew with front end grip issues.
The MotoGP troupe no heads to Sachsenring for the Grand Prix of Germany in two week.
Main Photo: Jorge Lorenzo
Credit: Yamaha Racing
Event results - Round 8 - Mugello
1 Jorge Lorenzo 41m50.089s SPA YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing
2 Andrea Dovizioso +0.997s ITA HONDA Repsol Honda Team
3 Casey Stoner +1.143s AUS HONDA Repsol Honda Team
4 Ben Spies +8.980s USA YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing
5 Marco Simoncelli +9.076s ITA HONDA Honda Gresini
6 Valentino Rossi +26.450s ITA DUCATI Ducati Team
7 Hector Barbera +28.745 SPA DUCATI Aspar Ducati
8 Dani Pedrosa +32.043s SPA HONDA Repsol Honda Team
9 Colin Edwards +33.421s USA YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
10 Nicky Hayden +34.724s USA DUCATI Ducati Team
11 Hiroshi Aoyama +37.359s JPN HONDA Honda Gresini
12 Karel Abraham +43.964s CZE DUCATI Cardion AB Ducati
13 Alvaro Bautista +47.654s SPA SUZUKI Suzuki MotoGP
14 Randy De Puniet +48.840s FRA DUCATI Pramac Racing Team
15 Toni Elias +1m15.199s SPA HONDA LCR Honda MotoGP
16 Cal Crutchlow DNF - 17 Laps GBR YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
Championship standings
1 Casey Stoner 152 pts AUS HONDA Repsol Honda Team
2 Jorge Lorenzo 133 pts SPA YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing
3 Andrea Dovizioso 119 pts ITA HONDA Repsol Honda Team
4 Valentino Rossi 91 pts ITA DUCATI Ducati Team
5 Nicky Hayden 77 pts USA DUCATI Ducati Team
6 Ben Spies 74 pts USA YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing
7 Dani Pedrosa 69 pts SPA HONDA Repsol Honda Team
8 Hiroshi Aoyama 56 pts JPN HONDA Honda Gresini
9 Colin Edwards 53 pts USA YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
10 Marco Simoncelli 50 pts ITA HONDA Honda Gresini
11 Hector Barbera 44 pts SPA DUCATI Aspar Ducati
12 Karel Abraham 37 pts CZE DUCATI Cardion AB Ducati
13 Toni Elias 35 pts SPA HONDA LCR Honda MotoGP
14 Cal Crutchlow 32 pts GBR YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
15 Alvaro Bautista 30 pts SPA SUZUKI Suzuki MotoGP
16 Loris Capirossi 22 pts ITA DUCATI Pramac Racing Team
17 Randy De Puniet 12 pts FRA DUCATI Pramac Racing Team
18 John Hopkins 6 pts USA SUZUKI Suzuki MotoGP
19 Kousuke Akiyoshi 3 pts JPN HONDA Honda Gresini
