Failure to keep pace with Stoner

Valentino Rossi blamed tyre problems for his failure to keep pace with Casey Stoner during the British Grand Prix. The Italian Yamaha rider finished fourth, 21 seconds behind race-winner Stoner, who increased his points lead over the five-time world champion from 14 to 26 points.

But he looked on course for a podium finish until his wet Michelin tyres began to fall apart as a dry line emerged in the late stages of the race and left him powerless to defend from Chris Vermeulen's Suzuki.

"Unfortunately today the conditions were not good for us at all and we had a lot of problems," said Rossi.

"In the full dry we would have been at our strongest, in full wet we would have been also quite good, but with a drying track like this we struggled a lot.

"I had to go very carefully just to be able to finish and, because we were riding with a wet tyre on a dry track, my tyre was destroyed by the end."

Rossi went off the track at Coppice after passing John Hopkins for third in the middle portion of the race and said that he suffered from an extreme lack of grip afterwards.

"I made a mistake and ran off the track when I was going the best I went during the whole race and then as the track began to dry I had less and less grip," he added.

"It seems that this year, when the conditions aren't perfect, we suffer a lot."

Rossi's performance was made all the more bizarre by virtue of his team-mate Colin Edwards finishing second - ten seconds ahead of him despite professing to hate wet weather races.

Stoner holds off Rossi at Spain

Championship leader Casey Stoner produced an ice-cool performance to hold off a charging Valentino Rossi and claim his fourth race victory of the season in a thrilling Catalan MotoGP on Sunday.

A Spanish party !

After enjoying the raucous backing of over 85,000 fans at his home circuit, Valentino Rossi is looking forward to yet more passionate support in Barcelona this Sunday. Despite the recent success of local rider Dani Pedrosa, Rossi remains a firm favourite with the Spanish fans and always looks forward to performing for them, whether it be at Barcelona, Jerez or Valencia.

"Barcelona is always a great race for me and I've won there the last three years with Yamaha, so hopefully we can do it again," says Rossi. "I am lucky to have lots of fans in Spain, even though I have had some close rivalries with Spanish riders, and it is always a pleasure to ride in front of them. I got a fantastic reception when I won the race at Jerez earlier in the season so hopefully I can start the same kind of party in Barcelona.

"Dani Pedrosa will also have a lot of support this weekend and I expect him to be a difficult rival once again after such a good race at Mugello. Also Stoner will be strong, especially down the long straight, but Yamaha and Michelin have worked really hard to close the gap on our rivals and I think we are ready to battle with them at every track now. After Mugello we have three more races at three of my favourite tracks so hopefully we can continue with the good progress we have made recently and be back on top of the podium again!"

6 in a row at home race

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.

Rossi's postmatch

Position: 1stTime: 42'42.385

"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."

Gunning for six in a row at Mugello

Valentino Rossi has been imperious at the Italian Grand Prix since 2002 and the Italian goes for a sixth successive victory at Mugello on Sunday.

The seven-times world champion lies second in the MotoGP standings, 21 points behind Australian Casey Stoner after five races, but is the undisputed master of the twisting Tuscan circuit in the hills north of Florence.

Rossi has finished top of the podium at Mugello every year since the MotoGP class was introduced in 2002.“I’ve got a special relationship with Mugello. I’ve won many races there, in particular the last three years with Yamaha,” he told the official MotoGP site (www.motogp.com).

“It’s a track on which I’ve disputed the greatest races of my career. And even though this year there is another race in Italy, at Misano (in the San Marino Grand Prix in September), Mugello stands out because of the big crowds and the atmosphere.”

Rossi made a good start to the season, riding his Yamaha to second place behind Stoner in the opening race in Qatar before winning in Spain.

Since then, however, he has gone off the boil. Second place in the Chinese grand prix in early May was sandwiched between a tenth-place finish in Turkey and sixth place at a wet Le Mans circuit two weeks ago. Stoner, meanwhile, notched up two more wins and a third place to take control of the championship.

Rossi’s struggle to control his Yamaha on the slippery circuit at the French Grand Prix underlined the disadvantages of the Michelin tyres he uses compared to the Bridgestones used by Stoner.

“We stayed in France an extra two days and we’ve made some good steps forward, in particular on the tyres,” Rossi said.

“I’m expecting a good battle this weekend. This time the weather should be on our side.” Rossi’s Yamaha will have to be perfectly set-up at Mugello, where the 1.14km straight - one of the longest in MotoGP racing - should favour the raw speed of the Ducati ridden by Stoner. Stoner will be keen to erase the memory of his race in Italy last year, when he was flipped roughly off his bike at the fast Arrabbiata bend on the ninth lap.

“Mugello is one of my favourite tracks. It’s where I got my first pole in 125cc,” he said.