Mugello rider pics and comment

See the pictures, read what the riders had to say about Sunday's Mugello MotoGP

“It’s an unbelievable feeling to win again"

Dani Pedrosa - Repsol Honda - 1st

“It’s an unbelievable feeling to win again and I’m so happy for myself and the Repsol Honda Team. We’ve been working really hard and we had some problems through the winter and in the first races, so I’m really delighted with this victory, especially after leading at Jerez for so long but not quite making it. It looks like we are back near where we need to be and the team deserves the victory. I had a great feeling on the bike today, especially at the beginning section of the race and I could open up a gap. To be honest I didn’t see who was behind me, I just looked for the gap on my pit board and tried to ride consistently. It’s important that we are competitive now because we have one weekend off and then three races in a row. The next race is at Silverstone which is a legendary track so I hope that we can match this kind of performance there - and also that this part of England has better weather! I’d like to thank the team again for this result. And I also want to thank the fans here for pushing for Valentino because he’s having a hard time and everyone in the paddock wishes him well.”

"It was very strange today without Valentino"

Jorge Lorenzo - Fiat Yamaha - 2nd

"Unfortunately my pace today wasn't as good as yesterday and I could only finish second; something happened and I couldn't ride in the same way but in the circumstances I am happy with my result. Anyway Dani had a perfect race today; he had an amazing pace and I don't know if I could have beaten him even if I had been as fast as yesterday! To take 90 points from 100 is great and I am leading the championship, so I cannot ask for more. I need to make some improvements to my riding style and Yamaha needs to try to improve the power of the bike a bit so we have some things to work on, but I am confident about the next weeks. It was very strange today without Valentino, I am so glad the fans honoured him so well. I wanted to win to dedicate the victory to him but that wasn't possible so all I can do is say ‘get well soon!'"

"It was a really emotional experience"

Andrea Dovizioso - Repsol Honda - 3rd

“It’s so special to be on the podium at Mugello in front of my home crowd because I’ve never made the podium in MotoGP here - I always had to watch it on the TV in the garage! It was a really emotional experience up there with all the fans supporting us. I made a good start and this was really important for my race. I wanted to finish the race fighting with Lorenzo because I think it could have been a good battle on the last lap, but I couldn’t catch him. We are getting closer to the front but we are not quite there yet and we have to take the next step so that we can fight for victories. Three podium finishes is a good start to the season and is very important for the championship, and it’s thanks to the hard work we’ve done over the winter and in the first races. I’d like to say congratulations to Dani on the win because he had an incredible pace, and this is an extra motivation for us to take that extra step forward so we can fight for the win.”

"I was running wide, losing the front a bit"

Casey Stoner - Team Ducati - 4th

“To be honest we expected to be a little bit better after this morning’s warm-up but maybe the conditions were a little too hot for the changes we made and the tyre we ran in the race. The left side of the tyre was working really well but I just couldn’t get the right side hooked up and I was running wide, losing the front a bit, but I managed to stay on. Once I got ahead of Marco and Randy in the early stages of the race I was pushing to get away but couldn’t so I decided to sit back and attack them on the last lap. I suppose in that respect I got the job done bit it’s not exactly what I would have liked for this race because it’s a track I like and it’s Ducati’s home race.”

"I honestly didn’t think I'd be battling with Stoner and De Puniet"

Marco Melandri - Gresini Honda - 5th

“We’ve struggled more at Mugello than we did in France but after the warm-up this morning I knew I was in better shape and I’m happy to have been able to produce a race like that. I honestly didn’t think I'd be battling with Stoner and De Puniet today because I thought they would both have a higher pace than me but we did a great job, I got a fantastic start and other than losing a little time behind Hayden my pace was good. I want to thank the team, who have suffered in silence all weekend, and this result shows that in future we can never lose faith in our possibilities in a race even when things don’t go our way in practice. Now the target is to improve during practice and make sure we’re in even better shape to race.”

"I could have finished 4th"

Randy de Puniet - LCR Honda - 6th

“A top six finish was my target for this race but I am a bit disappointed because I could have finished 4th. After the start I pushed hard because in the middle of the first lap I was only 12th and wanted to recover some positions. On second lap I crossed the line eight starting a close battle with Melandri and Stoner throughout the race. At 7 laps to go I tried to take some advantage but it was impossible so I did my best to keep my fourth place. In the last two laps my bike started to shake on the exit of the final turn and I lost a lot of drive so Casey and Marco overtook me. We are still 6th in the classification which is good for me and the Team”.

"I'm looking forward to Silverstone"

Ben Spies - Tech 3 Yamaha - 7th

“The goal was top ten, so to be seventh I'm pretty happy with, especially leaving here with solid points after the disappointment of the last two races. I got a great start and felt like I rode as hard as I could and didn't make too many mistakes but I just couldn't quite get up close to the battle in front of me and that was a little frustrating.

"I found myself right on the tail of that pack with Randy, Marco and Casey but I wasn't going to be able to pass them on the straight. I just tried to stay as close as I could for as long as I could in case something happened with them but everybody kept it upright. I was just hoping that the pack was going to break open and I could pick one of them off but they stayed together. It was a good race and what I needed to build my confidence and experience and now I'm looking forward to Silverstone. That's a level playing field with nobody knowing the track, so I'll have less of a disadvantage."

“I screwed the start up"

Nicky Hayden - Team Ducati - DNF

“I screwed the start up and got beat up into turn one but I was able to make a couple of passes and thought I could fight for it. My rhythm wasn’t that good and I was just trying to make up too much time into that downhill corner. It was a rider error and it’s a bummer because it’s the team’s home race and they’ve all worked really hard. All I can say is I’m sorry - that one was on me. I’m completely okay so that’s the good thing but it still hurts. Thankfully there are still a lot of races to go.”