MotoGP: Valentino Rossi Set For Mugello Home Round

Paul Carruthers | May 28, 2014

With his teammate Jorge Lorenzo winning the last three MotoGPs at the Mugello Circuit in Italy on a Yamaha M1, Valentino Rossi knows that his first home Grand Prix of the season might provide him with the best opportunity to stop the freight train that is Marc Marquez.

“I am very happy to go to Mugello,” Rossi said in a team release. “This is a beautiful track and I like it so much. This is one of my favorite weekends of the season. For this reason I will try to give my best. There are always 25 points as the other races, but Mugello is a matter of honor. Jorge [Lorenzo] has won the last three years on the Yamaha, doing fantastic races, and this means that the M1 is very competitive on this track. It will be my 300th GP this weekend and for that I am not very happy because it means that I’m old, but I’m happy because I am in good shape and I can still be very fast. See you at Mugello.”

Rossi has been on good form thus far in 2014, the highlight of which is his second place in the last round at Le Mans. He is also the only GP rider to ever take seven straight wins at his home race, scoring consecutive wins in the premiere class at Mugello from 2002 to 2008. Prior to that he won the 125cc GP in 1997 and the 250cc GP in 1999. Last year Rossi was taken out of the race on the opening lap.

Paul Carruthers | Editor

Paul Carruthers took over as the editor of Cycle News in 1993 after serving as associate editor since starting his career at the publication in 1985. Carruthers has covered every facet of the sport in his near-28-year tenure at America’s Daily Motorcycle News Source.