For Yuki, who was based in Italy up to last year since making his entrance onto the world stage in 2005, this race could be called his second home course. The laps at Mugello are long, and there are ups and downs. One of the keys is the rider's approach on the straights between the corners. Yuki is good at this course and was looking forward to the race.
However, that was all forgotten once the race started on Friday. He and the team staff focused together on how many of the current problems could be solved with the setup. At first he was in seventh place, but during his last attack in the qualifiers, he went outside the line and crashed, falling into 19th place.

He changed the settings again for the free practice on the morning of the final. This time he went into all the sessions with major changes to the settings. He was beginning to see a ray of light, but since he had crashed in two of the three races, he needed a perfect run.

In the dead heat of summer, with the surface of the track exceeding 50 degrees, the race began. Yuki got off to a good start and moved into 12th place in the opening lap. The machine was in the best condition it had been in during race week, so he set his sights on achieving a better position in the scramble, but he hesitated due to what happened at Qatar and Le Mans. He followed the group vying for second place, but toward the end of the race, he fell into the fight for eighth place. With three laps left, Yuki battled it out with Alex de Angelis, Julian Simon and Alex Debon. Once he got ahead of the group, he was able to keep his position through the last lap and went through the checkered flags in eighth place. Under the current conditions, it was the best performance he could pull off.