Valentino Rossi has an incredible record of success at the Mugello circuit with nine victories across all classes, including seven successive MotoGP wins.
Below is a brief summary of each of his thirteen GP races he has started at Mugello:
1996/125cc/Aprilia: Qualified 8th/Finished 4th: His first Grand Prix appearance at Mugello was just his 5th GP start, and after leading a Grand Prix for the first time he finished 4th just 1.6 seconds behind race victor Peter Ottl.
1997/125cc/Aprilia: Qualified 3rd/Finished 1st: His first victory at Mugello – on the way to winning his first world title.
1998/250cc/Aprilia – Qualified 4th/Finished 2nd: Rossi was leading after seven laps when the race was stopped due to rain. He fi nished 3rd in the re-start to clinch 2nd place on combined time behind veteran Marcellino Lucchi taking his only GP victory.
1999/250cc/Aprilia: Qualified 6th/Finished 1st: Became the first rider to win in both the 125cc and 250cc classes at Mugello.
2000/500cc/Honda: Qualified 3rd/Finished 12th: Crashed on the 21st lap when fighting with Biaggi and Capirossi to become first Italian to win a 500cc race at Mugello. Rossi eventually finished 12th after re-mounting.
2001/500cc/Honda: Qualified pole/Did not finish: Started from pole for the first time at Mugello but did not finish after crashing out on the penultimate lap of a two part wet race. This is the last occasion he left Mugello without a race victory.
2002/MotoGP/Honda: Qualified pole/Finished 1st: Becomes the fi rst rider to win in all three classes at the Mugello circuit.
2003/MotoGP/Honda: Qualified pole/Finished 1st: Rossi won from great rivals Capirossi and Biaggi
in the first all-Italian podium in the premier-class at Mugello.
2004/MotoGP/Yamaha: Qualified 3rd/Finished 1st: After the fi rst race had been stopped after 17 laps when rain fell, Rossi won the re-started race which lasted just six laps – the shortest premier-class race of all-time.
2005/MotoGP/Yamaha: Qualified pole/Finished 1st: Rossi wins from fellow Italians Biaggi, Capirossi and Melandri. The first time in the premier-class since 1968 where Italian riders had taken the top four places.
2006/MotoGP/Yamaha: Qualifi ed 3rd/Finished 1st: In what is considered to be one of the best races of the MotoGP era, Rossi wins from Capirossi and Hayden with less than three quarters of a second covering the three podium finishers.
2007/MotoGP/Yamaha: Qualifi ed 3rd/Finished 1st: Rossi wins for the sixth successive year to equal the record of Mick Doohan who won the 500cc race at Mugello from 1993 to 1998.
2008/ MotoGP/Yamaha: Qualified pole/Finished 1st: Wins for the seventh successive year at Mugello – the first time in GP history that a rider has won his home GP in seven successive years. This was Rossi’s 91st Grand Prix victory making him the second most successful rider ever with only Giacomo Agostini having scored more GP
wins.
