Buzzin MotoGP

This weekend the Moto GP riders will be at Mugello in Italy, the home circuit of Valentino Rossi who is aiming to take his seventh consecutive victory there on Sunday for the Fiat Yamaha team.

Rossi is now leading the Moto GP Championship and said to Autosport “Le Mans was fantastic and I am still very happy when I think about it.  We had a good test afterwards and did a lot of hard work with Bridgestone and on the general setting of our bike, so hopefully we have been able to improve our package even further.”

“Everyone knows that Mugello is one of my favourite tracks, I’ve won there six times in a row and now I want to make it seven.  It’s my home race and also the home race for a lot of our team and to race there is always something very special.  It’s fast and technical and we know it suits our bike so we will be aiming to be quick right from Friday morning.  I hope the weather is good - for us and for all the fans - and then hopefully we can have a big Italian party.”

Jorge Lorenzo, the team-mate of Rossi’s, is also looking forward to the race, although still not fully fit from the injuries he has suffered so far this season.

Lorenzo said “I have to really grateful for the fact that I have recovered so quickly from my injuries and to have had such great professionals making sure that was the case.  Obviously we’re still not going to be 100% for Mugello but with every race that passes I’m able to put more weight on the footrests.”

“I’m going to Italy with high hopes because it is one of my favourite circuits, with lots of fast and flowing corners.  We have some favourable tracks coming up but we can’t rely too much on that because in sport, and especially in motorcycle racing, you never know what can happen.”

“This is a special race for me because it will be my hundredth appearance in the World Championship.  It has all gone really fast and if I ever make it to 200 then I hope it goes just as fast - that would mean I’m having just as much fun as I have up to now and hopefully I’ll have helped the fans enjoy it too.”

Casey Stoner is hoping for a better race than he had at Le Mans where he finished back in sixteenth place on his second bike as his first developed engine problems while fighting for a podium finish.

Stoner said “Last year we missed the podium by a little bit but the race was still important because we learnt some things about the bike that helped us be competitive at the races that followed.  This year we arrive on the back of a tough race, where we had a problem that prevented us from scoring a podium, but on the whole it was a positive weekend because we had a fast and consistent pace going during practice.”

“Hopefully we can mange to be just as fast at Mugello but have a good race too - for the fans, who always create such a special atmosphere in Italy, but mainly for everybody at Ducati and the guys in the team, who are working so hard and deserve a top result.”