Valentino Rossi escaped from the pack to claim his magnificent seventh consecutive home Mugello victory in dominant style in Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix. Rossi, riding under bright sunshine and in front of almost 100,000 trackside fans, got a bad start from pole position an was only fourth through the first sequence of corners, behind Dani Pedrosa, Casey Stoner and Loris Capirossi. But The Doctor worked his way clinically forwards, passing Capirossi’s Suzuki on the opening lap and immediately closing the slight gap to his title rivals. Stoner’s powerful Ducati got the better of Pedrosa along the home straight on lap 2 of 23, with Rossi dropping the Repsol Honda rider back to third later on the same lap. The Fiat Yamaha star then took the race lead from Stoner with a clever inside move through a downhill turn and the face painted on the top of Rossi’s special Mugello helmet never looked back.

Come se corresse nel cortile di casa. Pole e vittoria, la settima consecutiva su questa pista. Valentino Rossi ha domato per l’ennesima volta il Mugello e i suoi rivali, e così ha allungato ancora in testa al Mondiale MotoGP. E’ lui l’uomo del giorno al GP d’Italia. E con lui, che ha messo in fila Casey Stoner (Ducati) e Daniel Pedrosa (Honda), va celebrato anche un grande Alex De Angelis, quarto sul traguardo con la Honda del team Gresini. Il tutto dopo una rimonta strepitosa dopo una partenza poco felice.