Rossi thrilled to make up for Indy crash

The world champion wore a special donkey liveried helmet at Misano to mock himself for his fall while running second to Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo in America, an error Rossi castigated himself for making as he felt he should have settled for a podium finish given his big points lead.

Before the San Marino Grand Prix weekend the Italian had warned that he did not expect to be as quick as Lorenzo and Honda's Dani Pedrosa around the Misano track so would settle for a top three position, but when the event began he proved dominant - topping every practice session, taking pole and winning the race comfortably.

"I'm so happy, this victory is more important than normal because it comes after a bad mistake at Indianapolis just seven days ago," said Rossi, "and especially because me and my team did a great job from Friday afternoon.

"It was a perfect weekend - always very fast in all the practice sessions."

The only blip in Rossi's commanding weekend came at the start, when he was beaten into the first corner by Pedrosa and Toni Elias, and then lost out to Lorenzo shortly afterwards. But he was able to re-pass all three and go on to win.

"I hoped to make a better start and try to go in front, but unfortunately Dani overtook me, and also Toni, at the first corner, and also Jorge at the end of the first lap," said Rossi.

"So I was fourth, and I was a little bit in trouble. With a lot of fuel I was not 100 per cent confident. So I decided to take my rhythm, to put the right temperature in the tyres, and then to start to push.

"It was a great race, great battles with Jorge, Toni and with Dani. When I got in front I always controlled the gap behind, and I saw at one moment in the race Jorge overtaking Dani. But I thought I had three or four corners where today I was very fast. So I tried to use my advantage to the maximum."