MotoGP: Lap Record Falls During Qualifying at Laguna Seca

For those that are not familiar with the weather patterns of Northern California’s coastal areas, Saturday at Laguna Seca was a good example of the foggy morning gloom we natives must endure in order to be showered with the Golden State’s eternal afternoon sunshine. With FP3 nearly delayed because of low cloud cover, qualifying for the US GP at Laguna Seca couldn’t have conditions more opposite than this morning. Click past the jump for full-of-sunshine qualifying results.

Sunny and warm, Casey Stoner’s best lap record was certainly in danger this weekend, and it didn’t take long into the session for the time to be cracked. With Lorenzo taking over early in qualifying, the current-Championship leader is on his form this weekend in California. And while for a moment, it looked like Stoner would catapult the Spaniard from his top spot, but Lorenzo answered back on the final lap, setting a record “Best Lap” of 1’20.554 on his Yamaha YZR-M1.

Rounding out the front row is Dani Pedrosa, who held the second spot on the time sheet for much of the session. Unable to get the same progress as Stoner and Lorenzo did in the closing minutes, Pedrosa is sure to still be a contender for Sunday’s race. Also not out of the fight is Ben Spies, who despite a tough tumble with 10 minutes remaining, was able to get back on the track in the closing minutes to keep a respectable fourth place at his home race. He will be joined on the second row by fellow Yamaha riders Cal Crutchlow and Andrea Dovizioso, respectively.

The big disappointment of the session was Steve Rapp on the Attack Performance CRT entry. Getting virtually no on-track development, the team made great strides to bring the Kawasaki-powered CRT bike up to speed, but missed the 107% cutoff time by 0.694 seconds. It remains to be seen if Race Direction will let Rapp grid-up for Sunday’s race, though either way the team should have some good data to mull over before it races again at the Indianapolis GP.

Qualifying Results from the US GP at Laguna Seca, USA:

Pos.	Rider	Nation	Team	Bike	KM/H	Time	Diff.
1	Jorge LORENZO	SPA	Yamaha Factory Racing	Yamaha	267.7	1’20.554	–
2	Casey STONER	AUS	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	267.1	1’20.628	0.074
3	Dani PEDROSA	SPA	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	267.4	1’20.906	0.352
4	Ben SPIES	USA	Yamaha Factory Racing	Yamaha	263.7	1’21.094	0.540
5	Cal CRUTCHLOW	GBR	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha	265.1	1’21.268	0.714
6	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	ITA	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha	263.4	1’21.539	0.985
7	Alvaro BAUTISTA	SPA	San Carlo Honda Gresini	Honda	265.8	1’21.732	1.178
8	Nicky HAYDEN	USA	Ducati Team	Ducati	266.1	1’21.734	1.180
9	Stefan BRADL	GER	LCR Honda MotoGP	Honda	260.6	1’21.753	1.199
10	Valentino ROSSI	ITA	Ducati Team	Ducati	268.1	1’22.544	1.990
11	Randy DE PUNIET	FRA	Power Electronics Aspar	ART	253.9	1’22.886	2.332
12	Aleix ESPARGARO	SPA	Power Electronics Aspar	ART	252.9	1’23.075	2.521
13	Colin EDWARDS	USA	NGM Mobile Forward Racing	Suter	255.4	1’23.699	3.145
14	Karel ABRAHAM	CZE	Cardion AB Motoracing	Ducati	260.1	1’23.704	3.150
15	Yonny HERNANDEZ	COL	Avintia Blusens	BQR	253.6	1’23.769	3.215
16	Michele PIRRO	ITA	San Carlo Honda Gresini	FTR	255.9	1’23.877	3.323
17	Toni ELIAS	SPA	Pramac Racing Team	Ducati	258.3	1’23.898	3.344
18	Mattia PASINI	ITA	Speed Master	ART	246.5	1’24.017	3.463
19	Danilo PETRUCCI	ITA	Came IodaRacing Project	Ioda	245.7	1’24.227	3.673
20	Ivan SILVA	SPA	Avintia Blusens	BQR	246.8	1’24.560	4.006
21	James ELLISON	GBR	Paul Bird Motorsport	ART	251.2	1’24.715	4.161
	Steve RAPP	USA	Attack Performance	APR	245.2	1’26.887	6.333