Rossi celebrates 'dream' seventh win

The Italian, who has also won twice at Mugello in the junior series, said he had been spurred on by the adulation of the enormous crowd.

"The dream for a rider, beyond winning the world championship, is to win his home Grand Prix," Rossi told Italia1 television.

"I've won it nine times, so I've been very lucky. Many consecutive victories in MotoGP here, seven, this is a fantastic track for me.

"The people's affection always gives me an extra push, and today the bike and the tyres have been very good."

The win was Rossi's third consecutive victory this season and extends his championship lead to 12 points over Dani Pedrosa.

"We have built a good basis and we've improved step by step," he said. "Now the championship is long and we need to stay up there until the end.

"I'm in good shape, I feel good, but it's especially the bike and the tyre going very well. We have a winning package."

He admitted that the demands of racing at home had made it a stressful weekend, and he would have preferred to have a greater margin over second-placed Casey Stoner in the final stages.

"My face now is a bit more tired than the one on the helmet," said Rossi, whose one-off Mugello helmet design features a comic image of his face on the top.

"It has been nice, we were well sorted with the right set-up and the right tyre for this temperatures. It's been a great race that I want to dedicate to everyone that came here today, it's always very emotional.

"Casey was strong all the way to the end. I wanted to slow down a little because I was tired because of the heat, but he didn't allow me to and I was forced to push to the end.

"It's been a tough weekend because besides all the work on the track we have lots of work to do outside, because the people's affection is very tiring, but I'm very happy and I'm totally enjoying it.

"Unfortunately Barcelona is next Sunday already because after a weekend like this you'd need some days to rest. Instead there's Barcelona which is an extremely tough race, but it's another fantastic track where Stoner beat me last year at the penultimate lap, so this year I'll try to do better."

Rossi's win completed a clean sweep of home victories for Italian drivers, following Simone Corsi's success in the 125cc race and Marco Simoncelli's 250cc win.

"I want to say well done to Corsi and Simoncelli too. Three Italians winning. We've honoured well our commitment in front of all these people," said Rossi.