Mugello, in the heart of the beautiful Tuscany countryside, is fast, flowing and technically demanding. It's just down the road from the Ducati factory and it's almost in Valentino Rossi's back garden. Rossi hasn't failed to win here since 2002, and uniquely I suspect, all three riders to have won here this century are still on the grid - Rossi, Alex Barros and millennium winner Loris Capirossi. But enough trivia, suffice it to say that Mugello is a genuinely outstanding circuit but its combination of a stupidly fast straight, off camber downhill bends and elevation changes galore make for a challenge for both riders and suspension gurus. Not to mention the headaches associated with trying to get a tyre to work reliably over twenty odd laps with all this variation in conditions. Of course, one thing that you can always rely on in the arid heart of Italy is consistent weather, which makes it easier for tyre choices.

Except that this year things seem to be going slightly awry in that direction. Great news to the local farmers and viticulturalists, of course, but the co-incident arrival of torrential rain and the MotoGP circus made for some furrowed brows in pit boxes up and down the circuit. The net result was that there were only two dry practice and qualifying sessions, both of which were dominated by Dani Pedrosa, while the first round of the eagerly anticipated and long awaited Stoner/Rossi shootout went to the championship leader as Rossi slid off on Friday afternoon. And though the Italian was second fastest, snapping at the heels of the diminutive Honda rider through both dry sessions, when crunch time came and qualifying started the heavens opened and it all got messy. Not least because it didn't rain consistently, and Mugello is blessed with brilliant surface drainage which allows the track to dry really fast. So when the lottery of who went out when and on what was finally decided, Casey Stoner's Ducati was sat on pole position, just ahead of the acknowledged wet weather genius (actually all weather genius but the wet is more of a power leveller) Chris Vermeulen and his Suzuki, with Valentino Rossi third. Olivier Jacque, quick in the rain but about as welcome (and unpredictable) in the pack as a grenade with the pin missing, headed up the second row on the Kawasaki, with Loris Capirossi fifth and Marco Melandri sixth. Randy de Puniet put the second Kawasaki on the front of the third row, ahead of Dani Pedrosa who really doesn't like the rain and John Hopkins who got caught out by the changing conditions. Alex Barros rounded out the top ten on the privateer D'Antin Ducati.

Of course, and it's becoming an expression that I wheel out every race report, qualifying and racing are two different creatures. And race day proved this to be the case in more ways than one, as the sun came out and dried the track out and everyone scratched their heads some more and wondered what the heck to do now. Just to keep people on their toes, a few large sinister clouds hung around looking portentous but that's all they did. So after a dry warmup dominated yet again by Dani Pedrosa, this time with a rejuvenated John Hopkins riding shotgun, it was time to lineup on the grid. Oh, and now the track was quite a lot warmer, too. Did I say quite a lot warmer? OK, so the track temperature had gone from a chilly sixteen degrees to a distinctly warm twenty nine. And that, folks, spelled loads of trouble and even more head scratching for the tyre boffins. Especially as the new rules meant that they had to have essentially made their choice on Friday...

So. Lights out and Stoner, Vermeulen and Capirossi took off like scalded cats while Rossi made a complete pig's ear of things and shot backwards down the field. Marco Melandri made a blinding start, as did Alex Barros, though the Brazilian was unable to make it stick, dropping back as John Hopkins started carving his way through the field, relegating Rossi back to eighth on the way through. Lap one was fairly static after the first few shuffles, finishing with Stoner, Capirossi and Vermeulen leading Melandri, Barros, Pedrosa and Rossi. Hopkins waited until just after the start of lap two to make his move at the end of the straight, while up at the front a particularly determined Melandri slipped by Vermeulen. The young Australian kept fighting though, putting up spirited resistance despite his lack of experience at the circuit which ultimately worked against him.

Up at the front, the massive and fiercely patriotic crowd got their biggest treat of the day as local boy Loris Capirossi blasted his locally built Ducati past his team-mate to take the lead in his best performance of the year so far. Passing is one thing, of course, while pulling away is something else entirely. So while the Ducati boys duked it out at the front, Valentino Rossi started to let his master plan show. Having taken a steady couple of laps to allow his Michelin tyres to get up to temperature, the Italian really put the hammer down to climb one place per lap until settling in second on lap seven. But someone else was on the move as well. Dani Pedrosa had, you may remember, been consistently the quickest in dry practice, and so it continued. The Spaniard made it look fairly easy as he slipped up through the field, taking the lead from Casey Stoner on lap six. Capirossi dropped back suddenly, a couple of major scares from the front of his Ducati causing him to massively back off and relegating him from the lead to sixth in just one lap. So on lap seven we were treated to a couple of laps of utter poetry in motion as both Pedrosa and Rossi rode textbook perfect laps in an attempt to break the other. Then we were treated to a few more as Rossi took Pedrosa at his favourite Casanova turn and attempted to break clear. It took a while, but ultimately the Italian's experience and massive talent shone through and he started to open a gap. And just for once, that was it. No high dramas at the front, Rossi just put his head down, road lap after lap of inch perfect lines and pulled clear to take the win from Pedrosa by over three seconds.

But of course there's a lot more to it than that. Alex Barros, the last man to beat Rossi here, looked to be a spent force after a few laps, his promising start seemingly fading to nothing. And yet, halfway through the race, who should we see carving his way back through the field than the hugely experienced Brazilian? Barros is an incredibly smooth rider, and though he isn't always the fastest guy out there, his smoothness makes his tyres last that much longer than everyone else. And when you've got the fastest bike on the grid under you that counts for a lot. Which is why, just three laps from the end, Barros passed the factory Ducati of Casey Stoner to take the last place o the podium. And hold onto it, too, finishing nearly two seconds ahead of the championship leader. John Hopkins rode a valiant race, climbing as high as fourth for a while and running with the leaders before tyre wear got the better of him and he gradually dropped back to fifth. Loris Capirossi lost out in his long term battle with Toni Elias on the last lap to finish seventh, while Chris Vermeulen managed a last lap surge to pass Marco Melandri into a well deserved eighth. Nicky Hayden finished a distant tenth, though the World champion can at least take some comfort from the knowledge that Colin Edwards had a worse weekend, the likeable and capable Texan finishing a dismal twelfth.

So Valentino Rossi has won six MotoGPs on the trot at Mugello. And the pole sitter hasn't won a race this season. But more importantly than that, Alex Barros' herculean efforts on an essentially privateer bike have helped Rossi to close the deficit at the top of the table down to an extremely manageable nine points. With Catalunya and Donington as the next two rounds, both of which are strong Rossi tracks, the championship fight looks to be wide open again...

Italian MotoGP Results

1. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha)
2. Dani Pedrosa (Honda)
3. Alex Barros (Ducati)
4. Casey Stoner (Ducati)
5. John Hopkins (Suzuki)
6. Toni Elias (Honda)
7. Loris Capirossi (Ducati)
8. Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki)
9. Marco Melandri (Honda)
10.Nicky Hayden (Honda)

MotoGP standings (after six rounds)

1. Casey Stoner 115
2. Valentino Rossi 106
3. Daniel Pedrosa 82
4. Marco Melandri 68
5. Chris Vermeulen 63
6. John Hopkins 59
7. Loris Capirossi 47
8. Toni Elias 45
9. Alex Barros 43
10. Colin Edwards 39

SB