FIM MotoGP World Championship Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca Monterey, California July 24, 2010 Qualifying Results (all on Bridgestone tires): 1. Jorge LORENZO, Spain (Yamaha), 1:20.978 2. Casey STONER, Australia (Ducati), 1:21.169 3. Andrea DOVIZIOSO, Italy (Honda), 1:21.617 4. Dani PEDROSA, Spain (Honda), 1:21.655 5. Ben SPIES, USA (Yamaha), 1:21.679 6. Valentino ROSSI, Italy (Yamaha), 1:21.688 7. Nicky HAYDEN, USA (Ducati), 1:21.920 8. Colin EDWARDS, USA (Yamaha), 1:22.217 9. Marco SIMONCELLI, Italy (Honda), 1:22.300 10. Hector BARBERA, Spain (Ducati), 1:22.366 11. Marco MELANDRI, Italy (Honda), 1:22.407 12. Loris CAPIROSSI, Italy (Suzuki), 1:22.647 13. Aleix ESPARGARO, Spain (Ducati), 1:22.712 14. Alvaro BAUTISTA, Spain (Suzuki), 1:22.770 15. Mika KALLIO, Finland (Ducati), 1:23.127, crash 16. Alex DE ANGELIS, San Marino (Honda), 1:23.226 17. Roger Lee HAYDEN, USA (Honda), 1:23.764 More, from a press release issued by Dorna Communications: Lorenzo edges rousing pole position battle in United States Jorge Lorenzo took his fifth consecutive pole position of the campaign on Saturday with a fantastic display in qualifying at Laguna Seca, in which he and Casey Stoner battled to the very end for top spot on the starting grid. The World Championship leader won a marvellous contest with the Australian for pole at the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix, with a blistering late lap of 1’20.978 to take his 40th career pole. A satisfied Lorenzo commented, “It is an impressive achievement to take five poles in a row but it was hard. It’s not so important to get pole position, but it is better to make it. Casey set some very quick lap times and I didn’t know if I was going to make it. I did one lap which wasn’t fast enough and I just thought to myself to push even harder one more time and I did it.” Ducati’s Stoner had competed with Lorenzo and his Yamaha for the latter half of the session and led for much of it, his time of 1’21.169 the best of a consistent set of fast laps. The Australian looked to be on the verge of his second pole of the season but eventually ended the session 0.191s off the Spaniard. The battle for victory at the Californian track at 2pm local time tomorrow afternoon looks certain to feature the two rivals. Securing third spot on the grid and taking his first ever front-row start in the MotoGP class, Repsol Honda’s Andrea Dovizioso was a fraction over six-tenths off Lorenzo’s marker, thus underlining the level to which the top two had pushed one another. The Italian set his best time on his 36th and final lap. Heading up the second row, which was separated by 0.071s, will be last year’s race winner Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda), who was just under four-hundredths off his team-mate. Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider Ben Spies was impressive once more and will go for home glory from fifth after his final lap slotted him in front of Valentino Rossi, as the reigning World Champion secured sixth, repeating his position from both free practice sessions as he continues his recovery from a broken leg. The top ten was completed by American duo Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team) and Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech3), and rookies Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini Team) and Héctor Barberá (Páginas Amarillas Aspar). Mika Kallio (Pramac Racing) had a crash at the top of the corkscrew at the very end of the session, following his fall in the morning practice, and Roger Lee Hayden (LCR Honda) had a run off at the same spot and another at turn nine in a complicated session for the stand-in. More, from a press release issued by Rizla Suzuki: Rizla Suzuki racers Loris Capirossi and Álvaro Bautista made significant improvements during today’s final practice and qualifying sessions for tomorrow’s American Grand Prix. Capirossi (P12, 1’22.647, 32 laps) took just over two seconds off his time from yesterday, whilst team-mate Bautista (P14, 1’22.770, 35 laps) shaved almost two-and-a-half seconds off his best time from Friday. Both riders are in a positive mood ahead of tomorrow’s race around the 3,610m Laguna Seca circuit, as they believe that the improvements made today will continue though the 32-laps of the race. Today’s qualifying was held in warm and sunny conditions with track temperatures reaching 47ºC. World Championship leader Jorge Lorenzo secured his fifth successive pole position on his factory Yamaha. Tomorrow’s 32-lap race is round 10 on the MotoGP calendar and the main event will get underway at 14.00hrs local time (21.00hrs GMT). Loris Capirossi: “From a complete disaster yesterday, today is much better. Every run I did I went quicker and the feeling got better all the time. We made quite big improvements on the bike and we tried to use very little traction control to make the bike more stable. The engineers worked really well throughout all of today and modified the bike a lot to get the right set-up. I think that after today the bike feels more consistent than it has in the past and this is very important for us. Overall it’s not too bad and I think that tomorrow we can make a good job of things and get a positive result.” Álvaro Bautista: “Today I’m much happier than I was yesterday. I was a hard first practice and last night I thought a lot about the track, because it was incredible to ride here for the first time. Today I have a much clearer idea of the track and where my reference points need to be. I went much faster today than yesterday and I felt I was able to push on a used tyre and get a good rhythm. For qualifying we tested the harder compound tyres, but my feeling wasn’t as good as with the softer ones, so I think we will be using the soft option for the race. I was happy with my qualifying lap-time because I have made a big step over the two days and now I want to look at the telemetry to see where the places are on the track that I can still improve. Tomorrow I’ll be happy to take some more steps and improve my time and feeling in the race. I hope that for the race I can go faster and I’m very confident that if I can get a good start I can stay with the middle group and battle for a top-10 finish.” More, from a press release issued by Bridgestone: Lorenzo blazes to pole in Laguna, faster than the lap record Round 9: United States GP Qualifying Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Saturday 24 July 2010 Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Medium, Hard. Rear: Medium, Hard (asymmetric) Jorge Lorenzo scored his fifth consecutive pole position start ahead of tomorrow’s United States Grand Prix at Laguna Seca, setting a scorching time on the harder front and softer rear Bridgestone slick tyres. His pole position time was faster than last year’s pole by almost 0.7seconds, thanks at least in part to the use of asymmetric rear slicks at Laguna Seca this year. It was also faster than the existing lap record by half a second, and only 0.27seconds slower than the outright qualifying lap record which was set in 2008 on super-sticky qualifying tyres. Completing tomorrow’s front row are Ducati Team’s Casey Stoner, who also lapped faster than the existing lap record, and Repsol Honda rider Andrea Dovizioso who takes his first front row start of the season. The gap from third-placed Dovizioso to Valentino Rossi in sixth is less than 0.1seconds, promising a good battle between these two and Dani Pedrosa and Ben Spies who start from fourth and fifth respectively. During the qualifying session the harder option front slick was favoured by all for its extra stability, although some riders tried the softer front, and the fastest times came using the softer option rear. Many riders completed more than race distance on the softer rear, indicating good race-distance durability and suggesting it will be the favoured race tyre tomorrow. Tohru Ubukata Manager, Bridgestone Motorcycle Tyre Development Department “The laptimes at the front today were very fast and I believe the use of our asymmetric rear slicks this year contributed to this so I am pleased with the performance of our tyres. The ambient and track conditions were almost the same as last year’s qualifying session but the top four were all faster than last year’s pole time which is a good indicator of the improved performance here this season. The new asymmetric rears provide improved grip and warm-up performance compared to last year which gives the riders more confidence to attack. During the session many riders were able to confirm the softer option rear has sufficient race-distance durability so I believe this will be the favoured race tyre.” Top ten from qualifying (Saturday 13:55 14:55 GMT-7) Pos Rider Team Fastest lap Gap Compounds Front, Rear 1 Jorge Lorenzo Fiat Yamaha Team 1m20.978s Hard, Medium 2 Casey Stoner Ducati Team 1m21.169s +0.191s Hard, Medium 3 Andrea Dovizioso Repsol Honda Team 1m21.617s +0.639s Hard, Medium 4 Dani Pedrosa Repsol Honda Team 1m21.655s +0.677s Hard, Medium 5 Ben Spies Monster Yamaha Tech3 1m21.679s +0.701s Hard, Medium 6 Valentino Rossi Fiat Yamaha Team 1m21.688s +0.710s Hard, Medium 7 Nicky Hayden Ducati Team 1m21.920s +0.942s Hard, Medium 8 Colin Edwards Monster Yamaha Tech3 1m22.217s +1.239s Hard, Medium 9 Marco Simoncelli San Carlo Honda Gresini 1m22.300s +1.322s Hard, Medium 10 Hector Barbera Paginas Amarillas Aspar 1m22.366s +1.388s Hard, Medium Weather: Dry. Ambient 19-20°C; Track 46°C ( Bridgestone measurement) More, from a press release issued by Interwetten Honda: INTERWETTEN HONDA MotoGP TEAM – Right direction with the Set up of the RC212V found The qualifying for tomorrow’s Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix at the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca was much better than the second free practice this morning for the Interwetten Honda MotoGP Team. Alex de Angelis, who is replacing the injured Hiroshi Aoyama until he is back fully recovered, had his difficulties with the unpredictable character of the Honda RC212V, but he is getting to grips with the 2010 version of the MotoGP Bike. After he was shaken very hard again during this morning’s second free practice the problem seems to be almost forgotten during the qualifying in the afternoon and De Angelis could concentrate on riding the bike. Despite this improvement the team still has a lot of work to do before the 32 laps of the race tomorrow. If the direction stays to go upwards as it did in the qualifying, the chance to collect some championship points is not bad. Alex de Angelis, 16 – 1’23.226: “I had many problems this morning, because the bike was not right in any way, especially with the front I had problems. But in the qualifying we found a solution, mainly the problem with the grip was almost solved. Then I was nearly 1-½ seconds faster straight away and that is great. Of course we have to continue like this and improve more, but I am happy that the direction is the right one. At the end of the session I really started to have fun riding the bike. It is not enough yet and we still have a lot to do, but I am much more satisfied than I was yesterday.” Daniel M. Epp, Team Manager: “The practice did not go as I expected today, fortunately it improved a bit during qualifying. There is still a lot of work to do for us with the settings and I hope that we will find a solution to solve the remaining problems before tomorrow’s race.” More, from a press release issued by Fiat Yamaha: LORENZO TAKES FANTASTIC FIFTH POLE, ROSSI ON SECOND ROW IN LAGUNA Jorge Lorenzo took an impressive fifth consecutive pole at Laguna Seca today, the 40th of his career across all classes. His recovering Fiat Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi continued to struggle a little with the physical demands of the American track and will start from sixth tomorrow. Lorenzo, who also took pole at this race last year, was fastest in this morning’s free practice and looked in sublime form from the start of the qualifying session, moving to the top after just a few laps. He spent the middle part of the session fine-tuning the setting of his M1 ahead of tomorrow’s race and relinquished the top spot for some time, before turning his attention back to lap times with eight minutes remaining and retaking the lead. His only real challenger for pole was Casey Stoner, who edged the Mallorcan back into second with four minutes remaining but the championship-leader produced a stunning display on his penultimate lap to better the Australian’s time by 0.191 seconds and take his fifth pole in a row. Laguna Seca is proving less forgiving to Rossi on his return from injury than Sachsenring was last week and the World Champion struggled physically around the 3610m track today. The biggest problem for him this afternoon was in the shoulder he injured back in April, in which he still lacks power and suffers in the hard braking areas. That said the Italian is confident that some small changes in tomorrow’s warm-up can help him to find a few more tenths and he will do all he can to race competitively in tomorrow’s 32-lap race. Jorge Lorenzo Position: 1st Time: 1’20.978 Laps: 34 “Pole position isn’t the race but it does help so I’m really happy to have got this fifth pole. Everyone is working very well and this shows it once again. I didn’t think it would be possible today because Casey was so fast but I decided to give it a try and pushed as hard as I could and here we are! I don’t know what to expect tomorrow, it will be a hard race for sure because Dani and Casey are very strong, but we will do the best we can to fight to the end and at least make the podium. I’m excited because it’s always a special race here with a great atmosphere.” Valentino Rossi Position: 6 Time: 1’21.688 Laps: 36 “We didn’t go too badly today but we need to improve our setting a little bit to get closer to the leaders. Lorenzo and Stoner are very fast but after that there are a few riders quite close together, including me, so it’s not too bad. I think it’s going to be very difficult tomorrow because this track is a lot harder for me than Sachsenring, but I hope I can do a good race. There are a few corners where we know we can be a bit faster so tomorrow morning we will try to make some small changes to the setting to allow that, then I need to get a good start. My leg feels better than yesterday, which is good, the problem today is the shoulder because my left one isn’t strong enough to compensate completely for the lack of power in my right one and now I have some pain in both! My hope for tomorrow is to be able to finish the race without too much pain and to do the best we can in the circumstances.” Wilco Zeelenberg Team Manager “Earlier on this season I said maybe it was better if Jorge wasn’t on pole because it was less pressure that way, but now we have had five in a row and I have to say that we’re very happy! He was very comfortable out there today and our bike is working very well, so at the end of the session he decided to go for the pole. That last lap of his was incredible; I don’t think we expected him to be that fast! It’s going to be very close tomorrow and it’s a long race, we expect a big battle but we will do our best to be on the podium.” Davide Brivio Team Manager “We still have some work to do before the race but I think we’re in better shape than it looks! We need to find some small improvements and then we need to decide about the tyres for tomorrow. The pace isn’t too bad but to really be in the race we need to find a couple more tenths. This track is quite hard on Valentino’s body and at the end of the practice he was suffering with his shoulder especially; it’s nore demanding than Sachsenring. It’s going to be difficult for him to finish the whole race tomorrow in top form but we have to remember that this is our second ‘recovery’ race and all things considered it’s going okay.” More, from a press release issued by Marlboro Ducati: STONER ON FRONT ROW AT LAGUNA SECA,HAYDEN SEVENTH AGAIN Ducati Team rider Casey Stoner will start from the front row of the grid for the fourth race in succession tomorrow after sealing the second fastest time in this afternoon’s qualifying practice for the USGP. The Australian held provisional pole position for much of the hour-long session but a late effort from Jorge Lorenzo edged him out by just 0.191 seconds. At the same time Stoner’s team-mate Nicky Hayden was bumped off the second row, the American dropping to seventh place the same position he finished yesterday afternoon’s opening session. Having only improved by two tenths in this morning’s final free practice Hayden was pleased to make progress this afternoon and is confident he can put on a strong showing for the home fans in tomorrow’s race. CASEY STONER (Ducati Team) 2nd (1’21.169) “We’re closer to the front than last week but we still need to improve the bike before tomorrow. I’m a little disappointed that we didn’t make full use of the session this afternoon and ended up going back to the setting we had this morning. We tried a few different things that weren’t really working and unfortunately one of the settings took a long time to change so we wasted time there. To be honest I was happy to post the time I did – I thought we could have gone a bit quicker today considering how good the bike felt from yesterday to this morning but we just didn’t take that extra step. Hopefully we can take it in the warm-up and have our most competitive race of the season tomorrow.” NICKY HAYDEN (Ducati Team) 7th (1’21.920) “To qualify seventh with such a big gap to Jorge isn’t good enough here at my home race so I’m obviously disappointed but we’re not going home yet. We’ll be back tomorrow ready to step our game up and get in there. The team did a good job from the morning to the afternoon today, which was the first real step we’ve made this weekend, and really we’re only three tenths from the front row so it’s not too bad in that regard. It’s my home race so I want to get amongst them, have some fun and put on a good show.” More, from a press release issued by Monster Yamaha Tech 3: Spies within touching distance of maiden front row at Laguna Seca Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider Ben Spies thrilled a large home crowd at Laguna Seca today, the Texan coming tantalisingly close to claiming his first MotoGP front row start at the end of a dramatic qualifying session. Spies looked a serious threat for the front row earlier in the session when he jumped into the top three with just over 20 minutes of qualifying remaining at the spectacular California circuit. He slipped down the rankings as the action intensified but looked on course to return to the top three as he produced a dazzling final flying lap. But he lost precious time when Mika Kallio crashed at the legendary Corkscrew sect ion in the critical final moments and ended up missing a maiden front row by just 0.062s. Spies was still able to secure fifth on the grid with a best time of 1.21.679 and the reigning World Superbike champion is supremely confident that he can fight for a podium finish in tomorrow’s 32-lap race. While Jorge Lorenzo and Casey Stoner have been pretty much unstoppable at the top of the timesheets all weekend, Spies has looked a strong contender in full race trim and he finished leading American rider once again in a sun-soaked session. Colin Edwards secured his best grid position since the Italian Grand Prix in Mugello after putting in a tremendous amount of work with his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 crew to find a comfortable race setting ahead of tomorrow’s 32-lap race. The 36-year-old ended in eighth position with a best time of 1.22.21 7, the American still unsure whether he will use the soft or hard Bridgestone rear tyre for his all-important home race. Ben Spies 5th 1.21.679 33 laps “It’s a little frustrating to be so close to my first front row but I’m still really happy with fifth position. The last stint was good and I was actually on a front row lap for sure at the end. I was a tenth quicker and then Kallio unfortunately crashed at the Corkscrew. I saw a big dust cloud and yellow flags were being waved. I was really scared that someone was on the downhill part because you can’t see going in there. I wanted to play it safe and I lost a tenth there for sure and that definitely kept me off the front row. I’m happy being in the middle of row two and besides Casey and Lorenzo, I’m in the battle for the podium and that’s where I want to be. I couldn’t be happier with that and if I get a good start and sta y out of trouble then I have the pace to fight for the podium. For the win, those guys are going way too fast now. You never give up but they are on another level right now from everybody. I’ll ride as hard as I can and have some fun in front of the home fans. It’s been great to come home and see lots of support and hopefully I can give them something to cheer tomorrow.” Colin Edwards 8th 1.22.217 31 laps “I’ve been riding really hard all weekend and giving it my all for the home fans, but I seem to be stuck around seventh and eighth position. I’m not sure what else I can do because I’m putting in my maximum effort and feel good on the bike. The goal is to try and get away with the bunch from Dovizioso down because the top two are way ahead of the rest of us. I need to find some speed in the final section where I lose a bit too much time and now we’ve got to figure out which rear tyre to use in the race. I was convinced yesterday that I’d run the hard option front and rear. But now I’m considering the soft rear. There’s quite a big difference in lap time but I’m wondering how good the soft tyre will be at the end of the race. This is a really important race for me and for Monster so I’ll be giving my all for a strong result tomorrow.” More, from a press release issued by Repsol Honda: DOVIZIOSO TAKES FIRST MOTOGP FRONT ROW, PEDROSA FOURTH AT LAGUNA Repsol Honda rider Andrea Dovizioso qualified in third place for the U.S. Grand Prix today and in so doing secured the first front row start of his MotoGP career. The 24-year-old Italian was delighted to notch up this particular milestone and with a clear run into the Laguna Seca circuit’s fast turn one he has given himself an excellent chance of battling at the front of tomorrow’s 32-lap race. Dovizioso pipped his factory Honda team-mate by just 0.038s, and Dani Pedrosa will start in fourth place and the front of the second row. From the start of the qualifying session both Repsol Honda RC212Vs were well in contention and remained in the top three positions for much of the hour. Dovizioso continued his confident form from yesterday and several times was the quickest rider over the first part of the lap, before losing a little time in the final sector. It’s an area he improved on his last qualifying run and Dovizioso is confident that the race pace he established today will allow him to fight for podium honours. Pedrosa was also on the pace today and in the morning session finished just 0.113s behind the fastest time. In the afternoon he continued to work on his pace in race trim, but when it came to the final qualifying laps on soft tyres he couldn’t improve as much as the other frontrunners and so settled for a place at the head of second row. His rivals can’t relax though because this is the same position from which Pedrosa won last year’s U.S. Grand Prix, and the 24-year-old Spaniard is confident that a few set-up adjustments in warm-up tomorrow can allow him the chance to make a repeat of that result and give him his first back-to-back MotoGP wins after his victory at the last race in Germany a week ago. After a 20-minute warm-up session in the morning, round nine of the MotoGP world championship starts at 14.00 tomorrow (GMT – 7 hours). ANDREA DOVIZIOSO 3rd 1m 21.617s +0.639s “I’m very happy about this session because this is my first front row of the season and qualifying was an area that we had to improve. We were fast from the beginning today and I have to thank the team because they’ve done a good job this weekend. Yesterday and also today I have been losing some time in T4, but for the final qualifying lap I pushed at 100 per cent and did my best final sector time – which gave me my fastest lap time and a place on the front row. I have a good race pace but we still need to improve a little because Stoner and Lorenzo are very fast. There is still a gap but we are not too far away. I think the race pace tomorrow will be between the high 1m 21s and 1m 22 dead, and I’m confident I can fight with the others. Plus, starting from first row makes this easier. For the tyre choice we will probably go with the soft option rear. Our machine balan ce is good and we have a positive feeling on this track so I’m confident for tomorrow.” DANI PEDROSA 4th 1m 21.655s +0.677s “We’ve improved the feeling from yesterday and this morning our pace was pretty good – we were closer to the other riders in terms of lap times. This afternoon with the soft rear at the end of the session we didn’t go quicker, but the front of the second row isn’t a bad place to start and we could probably have been further forward if we hadn’t had a bit of an issue with some chattering at the rear of the machine on my final run. We put a lot of laps on the Bridgestone tyres this afternoon – more than 30 on the same tyre – and they are working well. In the warm-up tomorrow we need to make a few final adjustments to the machine settings to improve our race pace by a tenth or two – we’ve got a few things to try. The choice of race tyre will be important so that we have the best feeling for race distance. I think we can be competitive if we make the most of t he warm-up well tomorrow.” TOSHIYUKI YAMAJI – REPSOL HONDA TEAM MANAGER “Both riders have improved their pace today and they are looking in quite good shape for the race. Tomorrow I expect the race pace to be in the low 1m 22s bracket, with perhaps some laps dropping into the 1m 21s, and I think both Andrea and Dani can compete at this pace, which means they can be fighting with their rivals to decide the podium positions. The choice of race tyres is marginal and will depend on the track temperature tomorrow afternoon and the work we do in the warm-up. Dani had a small issue with rear of his machine in the final qualifying run so we’ll look into the reasons for this. Both Repsol Honda riders have quite a good set-up and we’re looking forward to tomorrow’s race.” More, from a press release issued by Pramac Racing Team: FIFTH ROW FOR THE PRAMAC RACING TEAM ON LAGUNA SECA CIRCUIT. ESPARGARO’ THIRTEENTH, KALLIO FIFTEENTH. Bad day for the Pramac Racing Team. After the excellent first free practice session of yesterday afternoon that saw both riders near the top ten, the outcome of the qualifying session on Laguna Seca’s track are a bit disappointment. The riders, Aleix Espargarò and Mika Kallio, have in fact completed the tests valid for the Grand Prix starting grid of the United States respectively in thirteenth and fifteenth position. The Spaniard had finished this morning free practice in tenth position and from him it was expecting much more in this afternoon qualify. Mika Kallio has lost much time during this morning practice due to a slip. Both have improved their lap times but it was not enough to climb the ranking. Both riders will have to considerably improve their position tomorrow to get a good result in tomorrow’s race that will begin at 2pm local time. Fabiano Sterlacchini – Pramac Racing Technical Director “We knew that we were going to had difficulty on this track where both riders have never raced before. It’s a very short track if you look to the length, but is full of pitfalls; you should have more feeling with the track to be fast. Tomorrow morning during the warm up we will try to make our riders ride their bike as much as possible and make a few changes to the settings we used today. Two seconds slower than Lorenzo’s pole position are really too much. We will work hard tonight with the data obtained today to help our riders to be comfortable on this track.” Aleix Espargarò – Pramac Racing Team – 13th best time in 1’22 .712 “This track is wonderful but you have to know every bit. I improved by almost three tenths of a second my best lap time of yesterday’s free practice, but it was not enough to gain a better position. A pity, because this morning I was again in tenth position. I haven’t had a good lap pace during my last exit from the pits, I did my best lap after just five laps but I didn’t improve my lap time in the remaining six laps before the checkered flag, I had traffic problems or I made some small mistakes that did not allow me to be fast. Tomorrow morning I’ll try to take advantage of the entire warm up to get more feeling with the circuit. I’ll give everything to get a good result.” Mika Kallio – Pramac Racing Team – 15th best time in 1’23 .127 “This is not the right way! This morning I missed half of the second free practice because I slipped. Today I clocked my best lap time during the last full lap on the track that I made. I was further improving my time but I was too fast at the corkscrew and I found myself on the inflated air protection on the runway edge. We are more than two seconds away from the pole position and this suggests that the situation for tomorrow’s race does not seem the best. Me and my Team will try to work the best we can during tomorrow warm up to climb position during the race.” More, from a press release issued by Honda: Final Qualifying Laguna Seca U.S. Grand Prix, Monterey MotoGP qualifying July 24, 2010 Weather: Warm and sunny Track temperature: 47 degrees Ambient Temperature: 25 degrees DOVIZIOSO GETS FIRST FRONT ROW START Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda) secured his first ever front row start with a brilliant lap of Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on a warm and sunny Saturday afternoon. Dovizioso will start third behind pole-sitter Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) and Casey Stoner (Ducati). Dovizioso is well established among the elite of the MotoGP field, with four podiums already this year and victory in last year’s British Grand Prix at Donington Park. But until today he’d never started among the top three. That all changed when he took to the 3610m track outside the idyllic seaside town of Monterey on California’s Central Coast. The pace for the ninth of 18 rounds of the MotoGP Championship was quite quick. Dovizioso was among the front-runners from the start and well placed for the final frantic minutes. He moved to third with nearly eight minutes remaining, only to get bumped down the order by others, including team-mate Dani Pedrosa. It was with his 36th and final lap, and after time had expired, that Dovizioso jumped to the front row by mastering the tricky fourth sector of the track. By qualifying third, Dovizioso guaranteed a Honda presence on the front row for the eighth race in a row. The 2009 winner here, and also the winner of last week’s German Grand Prix, Pedrosa was poised to start on the front row until a small problem denied him a chance at the end. Pedrosa wasn’t able to take full advantage of the softer option rear tyre at the end because of a chattering problem as the hour expired. Yet he’d done enough laps on the rear tyre to feel confident over race distance. Despite losing out on what would have been his sixth front row start in nine races, Pedrosa starts in a strong fourth place position at the head of a tightly contested second row: Fourth to sixth are covered by .071s. It was from this same fourth place grid spot that he launched en route to last year’s victory. Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini) won the battle of the Laguna Seca first-timers, despite a first day crash. The tall, lanky Italian was one of five riders who’d never ridden around the physically demanding circuit until this weekend. Learning the intricacies of the twisty track caught him out on Friday, but he quickly rebounded. And his qualifying performance was impressive in that he earned a third row starting position next to two very experienced Americans. Simoncelli will start Sunday’s race in ninth place next to Nicky Hayden, the seventh-fastest qualifier who twice won this race on a Honda, and eighth fastest Colin Edwards. Marco Melandri (San Carlo Honda Gresini) will start two spots behind Simoncelli. The track has always been good to Melandri and he was hoping for more of the same. This weekend the team received upgraded electronics, which will ultimately be of great help, but can be tricky to adapt to in the short term. The final two Honda replacement riders shared the sixth row. Alex de Angelis qualified 16th fastest in his second ride in place of Hiroshi Aoyama on the Interwetten Honda MotoGP mount. De Angelis raced in the MotoGP class last year at Laguna Seca, but spent the first seven races of this season in the Moto2 class. Roger Lee Hayden returned to the MotoGP class for the first time since he raced here as a wild card in 2007. Six days ago he was asked to fill in for the injured Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda) after the Frenchman broke both bones in his lower left leg last Sunday at the Sachsenring. Hayden was offered the ride by team owner Lucio Cecchinello on a recommendation from former 500cc World Champion Kevin Schwantz. The youngest of the racing Haydens, who’s currently racing in World Superbike and will race a Moriwaki-framed American Honda in the Moto2 class at next month’s Indianapolis Grand Prix, improved his lap time by 1.668s over the course of practice and qualifying. The two areas he found most challenging were the carbon front brakes-he uses metal in World Superbike-and the control Bridgestone tyres, which he was careful to get up to proper operating temperature. The qualifying session was held in nearly ideal conditions, with an ambient temperature of 25C and a track temperature of 47C. Similar conditions are expected for Sunday’s ninth round of the world championship, after which the teams scatter for the summer break. HONDA MotoGP RIDER QUOTES Andrea Dovizioso, Repsol Honda RC212V: 3rd 1m, 21.617s “I’m very happy about this session because this is my first front row of the season and qualifying was an area that we had to improve. We were fast from the beginning today and I have to thank the team because they’ve done a good job this weekend. Yesterday and also today I have been losing some time in T4, but for the final qualifying lap I pushed at 100 per cent and did my best final sector time – which gave me my fastest lap time and a place on the front row. I have a good race pace but we still need to improve a little because Stoner and Lorenzo are very fast. There is still a gap but we are not too far away. I think the race pace tomorrow will be between the high 1m 21s and 1m 22 dead, and I’m confident I can fight with the others. Plus, starting from first row makes this easier. For the tyre choice we will probably go with the soft option rear. Our machine balance is good and we have a positive feeling on this track so I’m confident for tomorrow.” Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda RC212V: 4th 1m, 21.655s “We’ve improved the feeling from yesterday and this morning our pace was pretty good – we were closer to the other riders in terms of lap times. This afternoon with the soft rear at the end of the session we didn’t go quicker, but the front of the second row isn’t a bad place to start and we could probably have been further forward if we hadn’t had a bit of an issue with some vibration at the rear of the machine on my final run. We put a lot of laps on the Bridgestone tyres this afternoon – more than 30 on the same tyre – and they are working well. In the warm-up tomorrow we need to make a few final adjustments to the machine settings to improve our race pace by a tenth or two – we’ve got a few things to try. The choice of race tyre will be important so that we have the best feeling for race distance. I think we can be competitive if we make the most of the warm-up well tomorrow.” Marco Simoncelli, San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V: 9th 1m, 22.300s “I’m quite happy with that. We were struggling yesterday but that was normal because it was my first time at the track and considering everything it wasn’t so bad. We weren’t brilliant this morning, when we spent the session on a used tyre and made a few changes to the setting that didn’t quite work. Thanks to the help of our Japanese technician from HRC, who made a suggestion about the set-up, the bike immediately felt better and I was able to ride alone and make progress. I wasn’t following anybody for my fastest lap so that gives me a lot of confidence for the race. I’m happy I know my way around Laguna Seca now and I think I have the Corkscrew sorted out, so all in all I am satisfied.” Marco Melandri, San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V: 11th 1m, 22.407s “It has been a difficult day and we have struggled a lot. The new electronics package definitely has a lot of potential but we need more time to set it up we are still a long way from getting the most out of it. In qualifying this afternoon (Mika) Kallio got in my way in the Corkscrew when I was on my fastest lap and I lost it. But that doesn’t cover up the fact that we are still some way off where we should be.” Alex de Angelis, Interwetten Honda MotoGP RC212V: 16th 1m, 23.226s “I had many problems this morning, because the bike was not right in any way, especially with the front I had problems. But in the qualifying we found a solution, mainly the problem with the grip was almost solved. Then I was nearly 1.5 seconds faster straight away and that is great. Of course we have to continue like this and improve more, but I am happy that the direction is the right one. At the end of the session I really started to have fun riding the bike. It is not enough yet and we still have a lot to do, but I am much more satisfied than I was yesterday.” Roger Lee Hayden, LCR Honda: 17th 1m, 23.764s “Today was much better! We went almost 2 seconds faster than yesterday and it was a nice feeling because the Team have been working hard to improve the bike for me. Even though we are the last bike on the grid we are improving every lap and with the changes that we will make for the warm up I am confident we can make a good race. I am quite happy with the way qualifying has went: all I am missing is time on the bike. It is such a good feeling to race at my home GP with all my family and friends supporting me and I want to say a massive Thank You to the Team for this opportunity and for the way they are making the bike work for me. More, from a press release issued by LCR Honda: HAYDEN IMPROVES HIS FEELING AT LAGUNA SECA GP QUALIFYING Monterey, 24 July: LCR Honda MotoGP American rider Roger Lee Hayden will start tomorrow’s U.S. Grand Prix from 17th spot on the grid following today’s qualifying session at Laguna Seca Raceway which hosts the tenth round of the season. Yesterday the 27-year-old began his spell as a substitute for the injured Randy de Puniet and clocked a 1’23.764 fastest time on Q-tyres today at the 3.610 Km Californian which he knows very well. The second day of practices started out with warmer temperatures from yesterday and Hayden put more miles on his Honda machinery to improve the feeling ahead of tomorrows 32-lap race. The Kentucky rider tried his best to reduce the gap to the other competitors working hard with the LCR crew especially on the front brake and tyres set up. He steadily improved his lap time lap by lap 1.6s better than yesterday. Hayden 17th 1’23.764 Hayden: “Today was much better! We went almost 2 seconds faster than yesterday and it was a nice feeling because the Team have been working hard to improve the bike for me. Even though we are the last bike on the grid we are improving every lap and with the changes that we will make for the warm up I am confident we can make a good race. I am quite happy with the way qualifying has went: all I am missing is time on the bike. It is such a good feeling to race at my home GP with all my family and friends supporting me and I want to say a massive Thank You to the Team for this opportunity and for the way they are making the bike work for me”.