2010 MotoGP Championship – Round Nine – Laguna Seca – Day One
Casey Stoner was over two-tenths of a second faster than Jorge Lorenzo, as he got within 0.021s of the Spaniard’s 2009 pole position time in the opening practice session at the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix. The Ducati rider found an immediately fast pace at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca this afternoon as he took top spot on the timesheet Jorge Lorenzo just before the midway point of the first practice, and he did not relinquish it as he lapped consistently fast for the rest of the session having switched bikes early on following some dissatisfaction with the set-up of his first machine.
Inside the final five minutes the Australian posted his best effort of 1’21.699, just two-tenths outside Dani Pedrosa’s race lap record, leaving him 0.233s clear at the top of the timing sheets. Fiat Yamaha rider and Championship leader Lorenzo was the only other rider under the 1’22” mark, as he also made a fast start to his weekend with a best of 1’21.932.
Andrea Dovizioso was the highest placing Honda rider in the session as he took his factory RC212V around in a best time of 1’22.225, just over half a second off Stoner’s pace. The Italian’s Repsol Honda colleague Pedrosa, who won last year’s race at the track, was fourth quickest at a further three-tenths down on his team-mate’s time.
Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider Ben Spies was the highest placing American rider in the session, the rookie – albeit riding on one of the few tracks he has experienced before – setting a best time of 1’22.640 towards the end to secure fifth. Valentino Rossi (Fiat Yamaha) was sixth and also the last rider within a second of Stoner, as the recovering Italian put in a best time 0.961s off that of Stoner’s. He hinted there may have been some slight pain from his injured shoulder, but that his leg was coping with the compression in the infamous Corkscrew downhill esses.
American duo Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team) and Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech3) were seventh and eighth respectively, with Marco Melandri (San Carlo Honda Gresini Team) and Aleix Espargaró (Pramac Racing) rounding out the top ten.
Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini Team) had a crash at turn three very early in the session but was uninjured and returned to the track to go 12th fastest, and Randy de Puniet’s substitute on the LCR Honda team Roger Lee Hayden was just under four seconds off Stoner in 17th as he took his first ride on the satellite RC212V.
Free practice continues for the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix from 9.55am local time on Saturday morning (GMT -7) with qualifying at 1.55pm.
MotoGP FP1 |
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— Yamaha Report A sun-soaked Laguna Seca welcomed the MotoGP paddock to American soil today, where Jorge Lorenzo looked on good form to finish the opening session in second and his Fiat Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi made a solid start for sixth position. The Fiat Yamaha M1s are running in a special livery here to celebrate the forthcoming launch of the Fiat 500 car in the United States, which features the faces of 500 fans on both bikes and the riders’ leathers. Lorenzo has had an eventful time at this track in his two previous visits here but today was much more routine, as the 23-year-old quickly found a good rhythm and was on the pace from the start. He finished the day just 0.233 seconds off leader Casey Stoner but he admits he needs to make some adjustments to his riding style tomorrow to better suit the peculiar nature of this track. After his sensational return from injury in Germany, Rossi found he was in a little bit more pain at this track, especially in the braking area before the infamous Corkscrew. Aside from his physical worries the World Champion was happy with his first day’s work and is confident that the information he and his team gathered today will help them to climb the order tomorrow. Jorge Lorenzo – Position: 2ndTime: 1’21.932Laps: 31 Valentino Rossi – Position: 6thTime: 1’22.660Laps: 31 Wilco Zeelenberg – Team Manager Davide Brivio – Team Manager Fast start for Edwards and Spies on home soil Ben Spies made a blistering start to his home race at Laguna Seca this afternoon, the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team rider ending an opening practice session run in sunny conditions with the fifth quickest time. Aided by an upgraded YZR-M1 engine specification delivered by Yamaha for his all-important home race at the breathtaking California circuit, which features the incomparable and famous Corkscrew section, Spies was less than one-tenth-of-a-second away from fourth position. Laguna Seca is the first race 2010 where Spies has previously raced in MotoGP and he put his vast track knowledge to good use immediately, the 26-year-old quickly establishing himself in the top ten. Spies, who is running a special livery for his home race featuring the Texas state flag, led home a strong American contingent while also finishing fastest non-factory rider as he edged out reigning world champion Valentino Rossi by 0.020s. Spies is confident that planned overnight set-up changes to improve the stability of his YZR-M1 machine to cope with Laguna Seca’s bumpy surface will allow him to challenge for a top grid position in tomorrow’s qualifying session ahead of the ninth round of the 2010 MotoGP world championship. It was a fruitful session for Colin Edwards too, the 36-year-old instantly taking advantage of the upgraded engine specification to put himself in the top five for much of the session. Edwards ran several laps on both soft and hard front and rear Bridgestone options in preparation for Sunday’s 32-lap race. And he was immediately able to lap much quicker using the hard front option, the significantly improved stability helping Edwards secure eighth position with a best time of 1.22.971. Ben Spies – Position: 5thTime: 1’22.660Laps: 33 Colin Edwards – Position: 8thTime: 1’22.971Laps: 29 — Ducati Report Casey Stoner dominated the opening afternoon of the USGP at Laguna Seca today, spending the majority of the first free practice at the top of the time sheets and finishing up 0.233 seconds clear of his closest rival. Stoner’s best effort came on his 24th lap of 26 and at 1’21.699 it was just over two tenths shy of his own circuit record, set on his way to victory here in 2007. Stoner’s team-mate Nicky Hayden worked hard throughout the session on the set-up of his Desmosedici GP10 machine and nobody completed more laps than the 33 of the American at his home circuit. However, with over a second gap to his pacesetting team-mate Hayden knows he has work to do in tomorrow’s remaining two sessions. CASEY STONER (Ducati Team) 1st (1’21.699) NICKY HAYDEN (Ducati Team) 7th (1’22.902) — Repsol Honda Repsol Honda riders Andrea Dovizioso and Dani Pedrosa made a positive start to the U.S. Grand Prix weekend today as the first hour of MotoGP free practice took place at the famous Laguna Seca circuit in California. The factory Honda squad got stuck in to the detailed process of dialing in the RC212V to the demands of this unique and challenging track – Dovizioso and Pedrosa finishing the session in third and fourth places, with further improvements expected tomorrow. Dovizioso rode with confidence from the outset and quickly got into a good rhythm around the 3.610km (2.243 miles) circuit – remaining near the top of the timesheets throughout. Towards the end of the session the Italian tried some electronics settings adjustments with positive results and he recorded his best time of 1m 22.225s on the last of his 33 laps this afternoon, a mark which was 0.526s back from today’s quickest lap time set by Casey Stoner. After the positive opening session, Dovizioso is confident about qualifying well tomorrow. Pedrosa was a further 0.334s behind his team-mate and is certain that there’s more to come in tomorrow’s two sessions. The Spaniard is looking to take his first back-to-back wins in the MotoGP class this weekend following his victory at the previous race in Germany last Sunday. After a promising start to this afternoon’s session, Pedrosa didn’t improve his lap times as much as he anticipated and is looking for improved rear grip and more stability at the front – areas his crew will work on this evening. But having won last year’s U.S. Grand Prix at Laguna Seca after also placing fourth in Friday practice, the 24-year-old is confident of closing the gap to the top of the timesheets in tomorrow’s practice and qualifying sessions. ANDREA DOVIZIOSO – 3rd – 1m 22.225s +0.526s DANI PEDROSA – 4th – 1m 22.559s +0.860s TOSHIYUKI YAMAJI – REPSOL HONDA TEAM MANAGER — Suzuki Report Rizla Suzuki’s Álvaro Bautista made his very first racing visit to the Laguna Seca Raceway in America today and took on the task of learning this demanding circuit. Bautista’s (P16, 1’25.031, 26 laps) only previous visit to the 3,610m California circuit was as a spectator and he found out just how difficult this track is on a MotoGP machine when he made his way out onto track for today’s practice session. He made big steps throughout the session – even though he was troubled by braking issues early on – and is positive that he will continue to improve as the weekend continues. Today’s one-and-only practice session was conducted in very pleasant conditions with air temperatures at 24ºC. Australian Casey Stoner on his factory Ducati set the fastest time. Rizla Suzuki has one more practice session tomorrow morning, followed by qualifying on Saturday afternoon. Sunday’s 32-lap race gets underway at 14.00hrs local time (21.00hrs GMT). Álvaro Bautista: Loris Capirossi: — LCR Honda A few days after the German GP which saw De Puniet suffering a fracture of his left tibia and fibula, the LCR Team flew to California for the tenth round of the season at the spectacular Laguna Seca race track with the American rider Roger Lee Hayden making his first outing today aboard the RC212V. Under clear, sunny skies the 60-minute first free practice for the U.S. Grand Prix was held in warm conditions (with ambience temperature of 24C). The 27-yeard-old from Kentucky started his set up work at the roller-coaster style layout of the 3.610km circuit together with LCR crew finishing in 17th place overall (1’25.432). Hayden – 17th – 1’25.432 Hayden: “For the first 1-hour session it was not so bad and I had fun! For this first outing all I wanted to do was to get some miles on the bike. I have not used carbon brakes for a long time and some of the other aspects of the bike are quite different to what I am used to. As the session went on the guys made some changes to the bike to make me feel more comfortable on the machine. At the end we just run out of time but I am happy as I finished the session quite close to some of the guys in front of me. I am looking forward to getting back on the bike tomorrow to see how much faster I can go”. — Bridgestone Report Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Medium, Hard. Rear: Medium, Hard (asymmetric) Conditions during the session were fine and the track temperature reached a high of 45 degrees Celsius, giving riders a chance to try both the harder and softer front and rear slick tyres. Stoner and Lorenzo set their best laps using a harder front and softer option rear, whilst Dovizioso favoured the harder rear. Today’s times show that the asymmetric rears are working well, although their real benefit of improved warm-up performance from the softer right side of the tyre will be shown tomorrow morning when the temperature will be cooler and therefore good warm-up performance more important. With the absence of tyre competition in MotoGP the basis for competitive comparison has become lap records, in this instance set by Stoner back in 2008 in the final year of tyre competition. After only the first hour of running on a dirty track Stoner was only 0.2seconds slower than the lap record, indicating promising performance from Bridgestone’s asymmetric rear slick tyres at the start of this grand prix weekend. Tohru Ubukata – Manager, Bridgestone Motorcycle Tyre Development Department |
2010 MotoGP Season Coverage |
— Pre Season Team Launches