Rossi cautious on Mugello chances

Rossi trails Marlboro Ducati's Casey Stoner by 21 points in the title chase and the 1.141-km long straight at Mugello will be perfect to allow his rival to exploit the top-end speed advantage of the GP7 bike.

And despite improvements made to the Yamaha in post-French GP testing at Le Mans this week, Rossi is well aware it is going to be hard for him to take his sixth consecutive victory at Mugello.

"We stayed in France for two days of testing and we made a lot of progress, especially with the tyres. We also tried some new engine modifications, just small details, which we think will help us in Mugello," said Rossi.

"As everyone knows I have a very special relationship with Mugello. I have won there many times, including the last three years with Yamaha, and I've had some of the greatest races of my life there.

"Even though I will have a second home race this year at Misano, Mugello is something incredible and the fans and atmosphere there are always unbelievable.

"It's a fantastic track but of course the straight is very long and we know we're going to have a very hard battle on our hands. At least we can rely on the weather... I hope!"

Team director Davide Brivio is equally cautious about Yamaha's chances of beating Ducati - although he is not ruling out a competitive showing.

"Valentino has a great record there and at Yamaha we have been able to win with him for the past three seasons but this year it will be very difficult. We're working hard to improve the package available to both our riders and we'll see if that pays off here. I think we will be competitive but in racing you never know."

Fiat Yamaha's Colin Edwards has never finished higher than ninth in Mugello but, after taking his maiden pole position at Le Mans, he is eager to improve on that record.

"Mugello hasn't been one of my best GP tracks and I've never had a really great race there, but we're aiming to turn that around this time," he said.

"Le Mans was a massive disappointment for everyone, especially after getting pole, but it was good to get back to work straight away and try to find out why it happened instead of sitting stewing over it for ten days.

"We know our bike is working brilliantly when we get everything right - qualifying is proving that at every race - but we really need to translate that to race conditions and to do this we need to make the most of every minute of practice.

"Mugello is an incredible place and the Italian fans are completely crazy, in a good way! The countryside is beautiful and you can't help but be inspired by the atmosphere. This is really crunch time now - six races in eight weeks with the first being Valentino's home race and the last, in the US, being mine.

"Let's hope we can kick the run off to a good start with a double podium in Mugello, finish it off in the same way at Laguna and try to do the same thing at all the ones in between too."