Valentino Rossi said that he would like to go to bed and lie down for five days after he chalked up a third successive victory to prove without doubt that he has resurrected his reputation after two barren years. The Fiat Yamaha rider ended up a consummate winner of the Italian Grand Prix in front of 96,000 fans at the Mugello circuit in the Tuscan hills.

The triumph means that Rossi has won at Mugello for the past seven seasons and he leads Dani Pedrosa, the Repsol Honda rider, by 12 points, in what is developing into a tight four-rider chase for the title. Casey Stoner, the defending champion, was second on his Ducati yesterday with Pedrosa third and James Toseland, riding a Yamaha, an excellent sixth on his first visit to the dramatic circuit.

Rossi’s resurgence is a thumbed nose to all those who had written him off after he failed to win the championship in 2006 and 2007. This season he has also come under mounting pressure from Jorge Lorenzo, his gifted Spanish teammate, but he has hit a difficult patch of his own after a superb start to his rookie season and crashed out again.

“After winning the championship, winning at Mugello is the next best thing for me,” Rossi said after being mobbed by his fans, who invaded the track. “Today was like a dream. I felt quite a lot of pressure about this, so it’s a relief as well. After this weekend I would like to go to bed for five days, but now we have to go straight to Barcelona.”

Rossi started from pole position for the first time in almost a year and set the nerves jangling by dropping to fourth during a frenetic opening. However, he eased past Loris Capirossi, his compatriot, reeled in Pedrosa on the second lap and took Stoner before opening up a 2.2sec advantage.

If it was a good day for the Rossi love-in, it was also significant for the British. Toseland had never even seen the 3.2mile circuit before last Thursday and had limited practice time in dry conditions because of the turbulent weather. By the time of the race the track temperature was up to 42C (108F), but Toseland rode superbly to finish sixth on his Tech 3 Yamaha. “It’s a great feeling to be able to put the frustration of the last few races behind me,” Toseland said.

Bradley Smith came close to winning the 125cc grand prix despite riding with a broken toe and a badly sprained wrist after a crash in qualifying. Smith was in front as he started the last lap but was mugged by a gang of four entering the first bend and finished fifth. “The broken toe was no problem but my right hand was very swollen and my fingers bruised after that big slap in qualifying,” the 17-year-old said. “I dug deep with every single bit of energy I could find to compensate for the hand.”

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