Rossi wary of rain but happy with race pace

Having never been off the front row in the premier class at Mugello and having missed out by just 0.027s to his compatriot Loris Capirossi on Saturday, Valentino Rossi was obviously slightly displeased, but he believes he is still in good shape to continue his Italian winning streak.

Rossi has had no less than eleven front row starts in all classes at the Tuscan track but he lost out in a last-lap showdown and will start from fourth on the grid.

“I am quite disappointed to miss out on the first row. Usually I don’t mind so much but here, in Mugello, it’s special so I am sorry for this,” said the World Champion. “It was a great fight today and we had good potential for the pole position but in the end we lost the front row to Loris, who did a great lap.”

Looking ahead to Sunday he continued, “Our setting is good, we have some small details to check but our race pace with the harder tyre is very good so I am not too worried. Of course starting from the second row makes life a little more difficult but we don’t think about this.”

Given the possibility of rain ahead of the round five contest, Rossi stated, “The weather situation is very important because if it’s like this (sunny) then we know we are fast but if it changes, which seems possible from the forecast, then it will be a bit more difficult. The forecast is not fantastic for tomorrow, but maybe the forecast will be wrong!”

A confident Fiat Yamaha Team Manager Davide Brivio, meanwhile, commented, “As far as race preparation goes that was a good session, because we were always fast. In the hot laps with the soft tyres at the end we just missed out on the front row but this is not the end of the world. Our race set-up is very good and, although starting from fourth makes our job a little harder, we know that Valentino will be in the fight tomorrow. We’re looking forward to a great race.”