What we discovered in Mugello

1. All of the grid girls were called Alice. Apparently.

2. Valentino Rossi’s brilliantly eye-catching helmet put off all of his rivals, as we suspected it might. Not that we’d ascribe Rossi’s victory to his helmet alone, but it sure helped.

3. Rossi owns Mugello. He retained his record of winning every MotoGP ever held there. The Italian genius has won the last seven grands prix at the Tuscan circuit.

4. Are Casey Stoner and Ducati team-mate Marco Melandri even riding the same bike? Stoner is so much faster than Melandri, it’s humiliating for the latter. It says much for Stoner’s talent that he can squeeze so much pace from a bike that has lost its superiority from 2007.

5. Brad Pitt likes motorbikes.

6. We’re still in awe of Marco Simoncelli’s massive hair/head, even if we have no idea how he crams an Afro into a crash helmet. The Italian 250cc rider (pictured below, centre) won his race in Mugello and will surely move to the big bikes in the next couple of seasons.