"Our race in Le Mans shows that it's important not to give up when the situation looks bleak," says Crivillé. "We've had a terrible start to the season. The whole Repsol YPF Honda team has gone through some difficult times and needless to say, I've also had my tough moments, but we kept on working. Everybody in the team - the technicians, the engineers and the mechanics ­ have all stayed focused and now we've begun to see the light at the end of the tunnel."

Crivillé knows that there is a lot more work ahead. But Mugello is a circuit he enjoys and expects to be able to do well at. "Yes it is a difficult track," Crivillé admits. "It's technical with some tough braking and complex flowing turns. But it's a circuit that I like and where I've managed to do well pretty well over the last few races I've had there. I just hope that this will also be the case this year."

But the Repsol Honda men are not relying on luck to achieve success. Despite Alex Crivillé's Le Mans, the other two riders still haven't found the balance they need on their world championship winning Honda NSR 500s. Tadayuki Okada stayed on at Le Mans after the French Grand Prix to do some more testing and continue searching for a solution which has so far eluded him. "This lack of balance is a real problem for us," says Okada. "I have to admit it's making our lives very difficult at the moment. We can't seem to get the power to the ground. Our Le Mans test wasn't really long enough to enable us to make clear progress so we already know that we'll still be working away at this problem over the Italian Grand Prix week-end."

Sete Gibernau is having the same kind of difficulties as his team-mate Okada. Last year, Gibernau, like Okada, was a regular front runner, something both men have so far found hard to achieve this year. "I'm still not comfortable on the bike," says Gibernau. "And without confidence, it's impossible for a rider to be fast. I haven't forgotten how to ride but I just can't seem to get the same lap times as last year. Something's not right. We just have to find out what that something is."

Max is also having problems this year - “I can’t believe what’s happened at the last few races,” he says. “We’ve been very fast – I got pole at Jerez and at Le Mans but the results haven’t come. We’ve had such incredible bad luck and I really feel we deserve some good luck now. I love Mugello, I got second there last year even though I had a hand injury. Now I dearly want to prove myself with a win, for me, for my team and for my fans. I’m ready, we just need our luck to change.”

Kenny Roberts says he is up for it - "I've spent the time since the last race making sure I'm fit and ready, and I've been training as usual with Dean Miller for the past week. All the other work had already been done - the bike's been steadily improved over the past year, while at the Spanish GP we found an extra little boost of power that improved acceleration. That's real important at Mugello, because of the last corner. You come off that onto one of the longest and fastest straights of the year. The figures from everywhere show that our top speed's not that great, but it's more important how quickly you get up to speed, and that's where we're better than we used to be. I'm counting on that to help me keep the title lead out of here an on to the tracks where our bike is better."


MUGELLO CIRCUIT - Length: 5.245 metres Race distance:  120.635 kms

STARTING GRID IN 1999
1. T. Harada 1'52.454
2. A. Crivillé 1'53.143
3. K. Roberts 1'53.253
4. J. Kocinski 1'53.612
5. N. Abe 1'53.655
Fastest lap: K. Roberts 1'53.889
Circuit Record Lap: M. Doohan 1'53.342

RACE RESULTS IN 1999
1 A. Crivillé
2 M. Biaggi
3 T. Okada
4 T. Harada
5 K. Roberts

POINTS STANDINGS
1 K. Roberts 90
2 C. Checa 80
3 G. McCoy 61
4 A. Crivillé 59
5 N. Abe 54
6 A. Barros 52
7 N. Aoki 46
8 L. Capirossi 38
9 V. Rossi 37
10 T. Okada 34
11 R. Laconi 31
12 J. vd Goorbergh 24
13 J. McWilliams 18
14 T. Harada 15
15 M. Biaggi 13
16 S. Gibernau 10