Rossi: victory is big confidence boost

The Italian reduced Casey Stoner's points lead from 21 to nine points at Mugello, and is now full of confidence for the forthcoming races.

"Now we have three races in four weeks  - but this was the first, and we won, so it's a big motivation and a big help for the team and for me," said Rossi.

"Now we go to good tracks - Barcelona, Donington Park, Assen - that I like a lot, and we hope to get some other good results.

"The championship is very long and for sure the battle will go to the end."

Rossi said he remained calm after dropping from third to eighth at the start, because he was confident he had the pace to recover.

"I released the clutch too fast and I had a wheelie, but I lost maybe half a second and I arrived at the first corner just eighth," he said.

"At the beginning it was difficult, because it's easy to make a mistake when overtaking. But I tried to stay quiet, because I know I have a good rhythm, and step by step I tried to overtake."

He reckoned that his Yamaha remained at a disadvantage on the straights, but was extremely happy with its pace in the circuit's fast corners.

"My bike loses a little bit with the engine on the straight," Rossi said.

"I have some problems on the exit of the last corner, but I have very good speed from the first corner to the last. I was able to do a lot of overtaking in the beginning.

"Once the tyres got up to temperature, I was very, very fast, and at the end it was a good fight with Dani (Pedrosa).

"Today it all worked very well and I was able to be very precise and not make any mistakes."