Mugello is a great circuit, owned and maintained by Ferrari. That probably says it all, actually - a history like that speaks more about the track than I ever can. The atmosphere is magnificent, the spectacle is fantastic and the circuit layout guarantees good racing and plenty of excitement.

But.

There's no easy way to do this. No matter what else happened this weekend, there was really only one thing that was going to matter. And it happened on Saturday morning in the second free practice session. Valentino Rossi was blisteringly fast, having utterly dominated the first session, and was making good time when he slowed down for a couple of corners before putting his head down again. Now the jury is still out as to the cause, but the effect is well known. In the fast chicane, doing around a hundred and ten miles per hour, Rossi's Yamaha M1 flicked him off in one of the nastiest, most vicious highsies I've ever seen. Nothing unusual so far, except that the World Champion landed badly and, for the first time in his fourteen years at the top of his game, Rossi didn't get lucky. Instead he broke his right leg badly enough to need immediate surgery to have a pin inserted. Which, of course, means that he missed this, his home round, and will probably miss the next two or three rounds as well. Obviously, the good news is that we now know the surgery went well and he is in no danger. And his unique status in the sport means that he won't have to rush his return to fitness, but can wait until he's properly ready before coming back.

As I've already said, the first practice session was business as usual, as Valentino Rossi set off in pursuit of the lap record, which he missed out on. But despite that, he was still the fastest man on track by some way, the only rider to dip below the one minute fifty mark in the first session. And indeed, in session two he was also going well, challenging near the front, when he had his accident. As a result, it was his team-mate and championship rival Jorge Lorenzo who took the honours, from Honda riders Dovizioso and Pedrosa.

Practice is very useful, and perhaps a good gauge of what is to come. But it pales into insignificance when qualifying comes along. And, despite Rossi's keenly felt absence, it was still quite exciting as Lorenzo set the early benchmark before being pipped by Randy de Puniet, whose time at the top lasted a few moments, Lorenzo responding again to retake the lead. Then it was Pedrosa's turn, dipping below the one fifty mark for the first time, and reinforcing that in the last fifteen minutes later with an even faster lap. Unbeatable, until Lorenzo went quicker. Twice, even dropping below one forty-nine. Surely the Yamaha would be on pole? Apparently not, as Pedrosa again managed to shave off time in the dying seconds of the session, just a tenth of a second faster than his countryman to take pole.

So the grid, then, was Lorenzo from Pedrosa and Stoner, who had discreetly been making excellent progress with the Ducati all weekend. Row two was headed by Stoner's team-mate, Nicky Hayden, just ahead of Colin Edwards and Randy de Puniet. Row three saw Ben Spies ahead of Dovizioso and Espargo, while Hiroshi Aoyama rounded out the top ten.

It's rained around Mugello for the last couple of weeks, and as a result the place is green and pleasant. But the rain stopped on Friday and has stayed stopped, if that makes sense. The lack of wet data probably makes it a good thing that race day dawned sunny and bright, the initial mist burning off quickly to leave a clear, azure sky. Warmup threw up no surprises at all. Pedrosa was the only man inside the one fifties, hotly pursued by Lorenzo and Stoner. No big dramas.

And then it was the race.

Lights out and though Lorenzo got a storming start, it was Pedrosa as usual who got the lightning start we've always expected, and who took the lead into the first corner. A few other folk also got brilliant starts. Ben Spies and Andrea Dovizioso, for example, who slotted into fourth and third, respectively, with Spies impressively duffing up Stoner a couple of times in the opening lap as well. Colin Edwards was suffering from some form of illness which esentially knocked the stuffing out of him and left him a shado of his normal self. Consequently he was unable to capitalise on his strong qualifying and went rapidly backwards, struggling for the stamina needed to wrestle a MotoGP bike through a technically demanding course for twenty three laps. Dovizioso managed to squeeze past Lorenzo and set off after his team-mate, but to no avail. Not only was Pedrosa on a mission, but Lorenzo wasn't about to give up that second place slot without a fight. And on lap six he won that fight, slipping past neatly.

On that same lap, Nicky Hayden, who had been running well in fifth and holding off the rejuvenated Marco Melandri, yielded his position to the Gresini Honda rider and then lost the front in a graceful but ultimately hopeless slide into the gravel. Though the American was uninjured, the Ducati wasn't, and Hayden's race was run. With the current dire state of the MotoGP grid, that meant that anyone who even finished would get at least one point. Mika Kallio's exit, stage left, a couple of laps later meant thta the last place rider would now get two points - as many as some riders could have achieved all season when the grid was full.

To be brutally honest, at this point things settled down to routine. Pedrosa was in a class of his own today. With nobody able to take the fight to him, the young Spaniard simply turned in clean lap after clean lap, extending his lead continually over Lorenzo, who was still having to be at least a little defensive in his riding to keep Dovizioso in check. Lap sixteen saw Pedrosa's lead at nearly eight seconds, with Lorenzo just under a second ahead of Dovizioso and then a further twelve seconds back to Randy de Puniet. That gap was growing every lap, too, even as Pedrosa's lead started to shrink slightly as the Honda rider backed off to save tyres and engine wear.

Back in the pack, the man on the move was Casey Stoner, who finally managed to get the Ducati working and started fighting his way up the field in the closest thing to excitement we saw today. Marco Melandri, too, was making progress, and toward the end of a rather pedestrian race, both the Italian and the Australian had edged past de Puniet, Stoner eventually taking the advantage and fourth place.

So a disappointing race, in truth, with a result that in some ways minimised the damage to Rossi's championship hopes but which also, potentially, gave us a brutally depressing view of what MotoGP will be like when The Doctor finally hangs up his leathers. As well as giving a stark illustration of just how this once mighty championship has been decimated by rising costs and economic crises.

Pedrosa won in style, with Lorenzo holding off Dovizioso for second. Stoner fourth, and it's good to see him at least in the top ten again, with Melandri fifth ahead of the ever committed de Puniet. Ben Spies faded after a great start that saw him as high as fourth, and finished a respectable but distant seventh. As for the championship, well that's open. Rossi has dropped to third and will almost certainly be fourth after the next round. Lorenzo's lead in just twenty five points over Pedrosa, so a single DNF by the Yamaha rider could blow his lead completely. And while Stoner is now in the top ten, Colin Edwards has dropped off the radar after this weekend's disaster.

Next round is at Silverstone. Will Yamaha field a stand-in Valentino? They don't have to, but perhaps they should for manufacturer points. It's a new circuit, of course, so it might just be quite exciting. We live in hope.

Mugello MotoGP Results

1. Dani Pedrosa (Honda)
2. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha)
3. Andrea Dovizioso (Honda
4. Casey Stoner (Ducati)
5. Marco Melandri (Honda)
6. Randy de Puniet (Honda)
7. Ben Spies (Yamaha)
8. Aleix Espargo (Ducati)
9. Marco Simoncelli (Honda)
10. Loris Capirossi (Suzuki)

MotoGP standings (after four rounds)

1. Jorge Lorenzo 90
2. Dani Pedrosa 65
3. Valentino Rossi 61
4. Andrea Dovizioso 58
5. Nicky Hayden 39
6. Randy de Puniet 36
7. Marco Melandri 32
8. Casey Stoner 24
9. Marco Simoncelli 23
10. Ben Spies 20