2009 MotoGP - Mugello Photo Gallery

Round 5 of the 2009 MotoGP Championship brought the riders to the Mugello circuit in the Tuscan region of Italy.

Jorge Lorenzo took pole position with the fastest lap time of 1'48.987 - MotoGP, Mugello

Two-hundredths behind the Spaniard's qualifying time was Ducati rider Casey Stoner - MotoGP, Mugello

Third on the starting grid was Loris Capirossi on the Suzuki Rizla machine - MotoGP, Mugello

Valentino Rossi rounded-off the last of the front four spots on the starting grid - MotoGP, Mugello

Fourth in the Championship standings, Dani Pedrosa took eighth on the starting grid with his best lap a second slower than that set by Lorenzo.

Texan Colin Edwards placed a strong sixth in qualifying, running half a second shy of Lorenzo's time and right behind Randy de Puniet - MotoGP, Mugello

Despite qualifying 11th, Chris Vermeulen managed to look classy as rode past overgrown ruins in Mugello

2009 marks the 20th year of Grand Prix world championship competition for the French-based Monster Yamaha Tech 3 team.

2010 will mark the year Monster Yamaha Tech 3 reaches the drinking age in the United States. Drinks on us!

Your beauty defies captioning. What, heard that one before?

MotorcycleUSA.com Insider editor Martin Heath took shelter with Monster Yamaha umbrella girl Kate on what started out as a rainy Sunday morning in Mugello.

Monster Yamaha Tech 3 umbrella girl - MotoGP, Mugello

Fuzzy aerobics instructors? Yamaha girls - MotoGP, Mugello

The Fiat Yamaha flight attendants assist Valentino and Rossi in their YZR-M1 piloting endeavours.

It's rumored that if you look very closely at this photo you can make out Valentino Rossi somewhere in the background. Personally I've never noticed.

The MotoGP pre-race paddock almost has enough uniformed characters to run a functional society.

Loris Capirossi was just one of the Italian riders that the Mugello fans flocked to see on Sunday.

The Italian crowd was also watching Respol Honda's Andrea Dovizioso for success.

Dani Pedrosa - MotoGP, Mugello

Randy de Puniet - MotoGP, Mugello

Alex de Angelis - MotoGP, Mugello

Yuki Takahashi - MotoGP, Mugello

Colin Edwards - MotoGP, Mugello

Valentino Rossi - MotoGP, Mugello

Rossi fans at Mugello were sporting yellow for the Italian rider.

The Ducatisti were out to cheer the Italian motorcycle marque's two riders, Casey Stoner and Nicky Hayden.

The rain had stopped by 1:30pm but the track was still very wet and Lorenzo slid out on the penultimate corner just before he reached the grid during the sighting-lap. He managed to remount and race.

Randy de Puniet and Toni Elias - MotoGP, Mugello

Randy de Puniet and James Toseland - MotoGP, Mugello

Casey Stoner leading Pedrosa and Vermuelen - MotoGP, Mugello

Jorge Lorenzo passing Dani Pedrossa - MotoGP, Mugello

Valentino Rossi closing in on Suzuki's Chris Vermuelen - MotoGP, Mugello

Capirossi and Edwards - MotoGP, Mugello

Dani Pedrosa - MotoGP, Mugello

Marco Melandri made it to the front before the other riders began changing to dry tires - MotoGP, Mugello

Jorge Lorenzo - MotoGP, Mugello

Valentino Rossi - MotoGP, Mugello

Nicky Hayden - MotoGP, Mugello

Jorge Lorenzo - MotoGP, Mugello

Alex de Angelis - MotoGP, Mugello

Mika Kallio and Nicky Hayden - MotoGP, Mugello

Alex de Angelis - MotoGP, Mugello

Loris Capirossi, Jorge Lorenzo, and Marco Melandri - MotoGP, Mugello

Rossi coming out of pit-lane with his dry bike - MotoGP, Mugello

Pramac Racing's Mika Kallio, Ducati's Nicky Hayden, and Respol Honda's Dani Pedrosa - MotoGP, Mugello

Stoner made his way past Capirossi after swaping bikes for his dry setup.

Rossi passing Marco Melandri - MotoGP, Mugello

Doviziso passing Marco Melandri - MotoGP, Mugello

Valentino Rossi passing Kawasaki rider Marco Melandri - MotoGP, Mugello

Lorenzo making a charge to overtake Stoner in front - MotoGP, Mugello

Stoner (Ducati Marlboro) leading the two Fiat Yamaha riders Lorenzo and Rossi on his Ducati.

Valentino Rossi and Andrea Dovizioso fighting for thrid - MotoGP, Mugello

Valentino Rossi and Andrea Dovizioso crossing the finish line in third and fourth - MotoGP, Mugello

Colin Edwards taking sixth over Moster Yamaha Tech 3 teammate James Toseland - MotoGP, Mugello

Casey Stoner's victory lap - MotoGP, Mugello

Valentino Rossi celebrating his third-place finish - MotoGP, Mugello

Casey Stoner, 1st: 'At one point I thought it was all over but thankfully I was able to work out a way to ride around the problem and bring the victory home. I made a couple of mistakes over the final two laps but luckily it didn’t matter. It was a really difficult race but a great one for the whole team, for Filippo (Preziosi), for everybody at Ducati and all the Ducatisti. I’m so happy today.'

Jorge Lorenzo, 2nd: 'I have to say the biggest thank you to my guys today for getting the damaged bike ready in such a short time; it was a brilliant job and after I swapped bikes everything changed. From then on I had a great rhythm and I was able to stay on fighting to the end and take this second place. It’s a really amazing result because things could have been much worse today, so thank you again to everyone for making it possible. I’m really happy with this result.'

Valentino Rossi, 3rd: 'In the wet we were very fast because we had found a great setting, but then when we changed bikes we made a mistake and chose a front tire that was too hard, so it took me a long time to be able to put enough temperature on it and I lost a lot of time. At the end I was able to ride better and I knew that I had to make it onto the podium, so I am happy for this.'

Andrea Dovizioso, 4th: 'The sensation of leading the race in front of my home crowd was incredible and I think overall we had a good race today – I’m satisfied. I fought like hell to take third and we were so close – only 53 thousandths from the podium!'

Loris Capirossi, 5th: 'The whole team worked so hard this weekend and we tried to find the best solution for today's conditions and the bike felt like it had a good rhythm in both the wet and the dry. We now need a lot of help from Suzuki, because on the straight it is difficult to follow and stay with the faster guys - and this is what is limiting us at the moment.'

Dani Pedrosa, DNF: 'It’s obviously been a pretty bad weekend for us and the crash in the race just about summed it all up. After the problem with my right leg yesterday I had a pain-killing injection this morning for the warm-up and it allowed me to ride the bike, but to be honest there was still a lot of pain and I couldn’t ride at full speed. The rain didn’t help either because all the practice sessions were dry so the wet settings were a bit of a gamble.'

Casey Stoner and wife Adriana Tuchyna - MotoGP, Mugello

Mugello, Italy MotoGP podium: Lorenzo with second, Stoner taking the win for Ducati, Rossi taking the last spot for Yamaha.

Stoner, Lorenzo and Rossi taking part in some podium theatics - MotoGP, Mugello

Valentino Rossi - MotoGP, Mugello

Casey Stoner now leads the 2009 MotoGP Championship with Lorenzo trailing by two points and Rossi nine points behind the Australian in third

The Grand Prix paddock will take a weekend off before scuttling from Tuscany to Catalunya for the June 14th race in Barcelona.