Rossi back in MotoGP form

Multi world champion Valentino Rossi is back in form, with his Yamaha M1 proving unbeatable in yesterday's MotoGP at Mugello. After a poor start, the Italian rider worked his way through the field and simply pulled away once he scored the lead.

Rossi was chased home from a distance by Honda-mounted Danny Pedrosa, whose bike amply demonstrated that the factory has found some much-needed extra horsepower to combat the straight-line speed of the Ducatis.

Duke-mounted Alex Barros came home a surprise third, just beating Australian Casey Stoner and damaging the latter's championship hopes in the process.

Stoner in fact started from pole positions, alongside fellow Aussie Chris Vermeulen on a Suzuki in second spot, but both were gradually swamped as the race wore on.

Valentino Rossi: "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!"

Casey Stoner: "The biggest difficulty we had today was turning in the long corners and we also lacked a bit of traction. But…we should be able to solve these problems before the next race and score a better result."

Rossi, despite a torrid start to the season, is now well within striking distance of the championship lead. He came from much further behind in 2006 to challenge Nicky Hayden for the lead and it was only a last-minute, uncharacteristic crash which lost him the title.