Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca Monterey, California July 22 Free Practice Two Results (all on Bridgestone tires): 1. Jorge LORENZO, Spain (YAMAHA), 1:22.056 2. Dani PEDROSA, Spain (HONDA), 1:22.197 3. Casey STONER, Australia (HONDA), 1:22.231 4. Andrea DOVIZIOSO, Italy (HONDA), 1:22.537 5. Ben SPIES, USA (YAMAHA), 1:22.615 6. Marco SIMONCELLI, Italy (HONDA), 1:22.803 7. Alvaro BAUTISTA, Spain (SUZUKI), 1:23.056 8. Randy DE PUNIET, France (DUCATI), 1:23.135 9. Colin EDWARDS, USA (YAMAHA), 1:23.183 10. Nicky HAYDEN, USA (DUCATI), 1:23.195 11. Valentino ROSSI, Italy (DUCATI), 1:23.369 12. Hector BARBERA, Spain (DUCATI), 1:23.424 13. Cal CRUTCHLOW, Great Britain (YAMAHA), 1:23.707 14. Karel ABRAHAM, Czech Republic (DUCATI), 1:23.811 15. Toni ELIAS, Spain (HONDA), 1:23.830 16. Hiroshi AOYAMA, Japan (HONDA), 1:24.590 17. Loris CAPIROSSI, Italy (DUCATI), 1:24.663 18. Ben BOSTROM, USA (HONDA), 1:26.159 More, from a press release issued by Bridgestone: Lorenzo leads after first day of running at Laguna Round 10: United States GP Free Practice One & Two Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Friday 22 July 2011 Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Medium, Hard. Rear (asymmetric): Soft, Medium Jorge Lorenzo, last year’s winner here at Laguna Seca, finished the first day of running for the United States Grand Prix fastest overall, just 0.141seconds ahead of Dani Pedrosa. Casey Stoner, who was fastest in the morning’s free practice, finished third fastest a further 0.034seconds adrift. Distinct groups can be identified from today’s laptimes, with the top three separated by just 0.175seconds, Andrea Dovizioso, Ben Spies and Marco Simoncelli in fourth, fifth and sixth respectively split by just 0.266seconds and seventh to tenth covered by 0.139seconds. Characteristically for this region, the morning session was cool and started shrouded in mist that comes in from the coast every morning. As the sun emerged the track temperature rose to 35 degrees Celsius by the end of the morning session and to 47 degrees Celsius by the end of the second practice. In total, the track temperature increased by 20 degrees Celsius from the start of FP1 to the finish of FP2. Consequently, almost every rider favoured the softer option slicks for the duration of the morning’s 45minute run, with only a few riders choosing the harder options towards the end, although with the conditions there was little performance advantage. By the afternoon though, it was the harder option fronts and rears that were clearly the faster options, offering a distinct advantage with the increase in temperature. Even in the cooler morning conditions, tyre performance was good thanks to the softer rear slicks selected by Bridgestone for Laguna Seca this year. Chosen as part of the continued drive to improve warm-up performance, the softer option asymmetric rear features Bridgestone’s extra soft compound in the right shoulder. Hirohide Hamashima Assistant to Director, Motorsport Tyre Development Division “I can say that we had two good sessions of track-time today. I am pleased with soft tyre performance this morning in the cool conditions and am happy with the way we revised our rear slick tyre options for this race. This afternoon the circuit was much hotter so the harder options were favoured for the attack laps and again performance was good. We could see that Jorge was very consistent throughout the session, and also that Casey set his best lap right at the end which is a good sign for tyre durability in these conditions. The times are close at the front so tomorrow’s session will be very important for the teams to perfect their setups.” More, from a press release issued by Yamaha MotoGP Team: As the mist cleared over the hills of Monterey this morning racing fans were treated to the rare sight of Yamaha Factory Racing’s special 50th anniversary red and white livery on track for the 2011 Grand Prix of USA at Laguna Seca. Jorge Lorenzo was quick to get on the pace in the first of the weekend’s free practice sessions, rising to second mid-session and holding until the last moments before dropping to third at the end, just 0.120 seconds from first. The World Champion got down to serious business in the afternoon session, going straight into the top spot and holding it for the entire session, recording the fastest time of the day with a 1’22.056. Ben Spies was also looking good at his home circuit, gradually climbing to fourth just behind his team mate by the end of the morning, 0.506 seconds from first. The afternoon saw more consistent pace from the Texan rider, Spies eventually wrapping up in fifth with a 1’22.615, 0.559 from his team mate in first. Race fans were also treated to a special experience as Kenny Roberts Sr and Eddie Lawson took to the track riding a pair of unique Yamaha YZF-R1s in full red and white 50th Anniversary livery for a number of parade laps. Jorge Lorenzo Position : 1st Time: 1’22.056 Laps: 23 “I am very happy to be back riding here at Laguna, a track I love. Today went pretty well, the bike felt ok. P1 I’m happy with but we need to try to improve corner entry for the bike because there are some tenths in that and it will give me more confidence turning in. It’s not so bad to begin and we will try to go faster tomorrow!” Ben Spies Position : 5th Time: 1’22.615 Laps: 34 “Today hasn’t been bad, we’ve worked on a lot of different set ups. We haven’t found a perfect one, we’ve found a compromise so far but tomorrow we have a pretty good game plan on what we’re going to fine tune from the bike we ended on today to get a bit of a better set up for front feel. I’m feeling good, I can tell the bike has it in it, you can see that from Jorge we’re just not getting the maximum from it yet.” Wilco Zeelenberg Team Manager “Today was a nice practice day, we thought we would improve a little bit more but first is first which is the main thing. Jorge was quite consistent and feeling good. I think we have finished with the best position to start from tomorrow but we still have some things to solve.” Massimo Meregalli Team Director “The overall results are not so bad, Jorge had an impressive pace and he seems very confident on the bike. Ben is still working on the set up, he is not as confident with it yet as he would like to be. We will work tonight and tomorrow we will bring a new set up and look to make another step forward. We just have to fix some small details and we will be ready to race.” More, from a press release issued by Monster Yamaha Tech 3: Edwards and Crutchlow make solid start in America Colin Edwards kicked off preparations for his home race at Laguna Seca today in encouraging fashion, the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team rider finishing the opening day of practice for the US Grand Prix in ninth position. In cool and overcast conditions this morning, Edwards commenced the second half of the 2011 MotoGP World Championship by setting the eighth quickest time, the popular Texan finishing just over 0.2s away from the top six. This afternoon’s session took place under clear blue skies and hotter conditions, with temperatures hitting a pleasant 22 degrees after a chilly 18 degrees this morning. Track temperature increased too by 15 de grees this afternoon and cheered on by a passionate home crowd, Edwards knocked almost 0.3s off his personal best from this morning to clock a lap of 1.23.183. That put him ninth on the combined timesheets but in a close fought session, he was just over a second away from the fastest pace. Today’s two 45-minute sessions saw Cal Crutchlow tackle another steep learning curve, the British rider quickly getting to grips with another new track in his impressive rookie campaign. Crutchlow set a best of 1.24.018 this morning, the 25-year-old confidently building up his speed on the Laguna Seca track, which includes the world famous Corkscrew section, one of the most technically demanding corners on the calendar. Working on a revised weight distribution setting to improve his confidence with the front-end of his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YZR-M1 machine, Crutchlow lowered his time to a 1.23.70 7 in the second session. He was easily the best of the Laguna Seca newcomers today, finishing ahead of Karel Abraham and Hiroshi Aoyama, who were also sampling the short but technical layout for the first time. Colin Edwards 9th 1.23.183 47 laps: “Today was a decent start and I’m happy with the way things went. In terms of the position it is not my best start to a weekend at Laguna Seca, but I’m actually happier with the feeling of the bike than I have been for a long time at this track. The bike felt really good from the start, though we can make some improvements to the rear tomorrow just to make it feel a bit smoother and a bit less nervous. I’m confident for the rest of the weekend because I’m pretty close to the top six and we know we can go faster. I want to say a big thanks also to Bridgestone. They a greed to bring some softer tyres for this weekend and it was definitely the right choice. When it was cool this morning we really needed the softer tyres, so everybody could just get a feel for the track and get comfortable without taking too many risks. We ran the harder tyre this afternoon and that will definitely be the race tyre, and we got some good information with that too, so I’m optimistic that I can put on a good show for the American fans, who have been amazing already this weekend.” Cal Crutchlow 13th 1.23.707 47 laps: “It wasn’t a bad day at all although obviously I want to be much higher up than 13th. At the moment it is quite difficult to do the lap time. I know going fast never comes easy but it feels like I’m quite close to the limit and I’m still over 1.6s behind. I’m the best of the rookies and that’s a good start but it seems we’ve taken a step si deways and everybody else has taken a step forward. The bike feels better than Germany last weekend but we can still make it better. We’re not far away and we’ve got some ideas to work on tonight but it also a lack of track knowledge that doesn’t help. Trying to learn the track and go fast at the same time is not easy, but I’m making progress. The track itself is really good fun. The Corkscrew is pretty amazing although I’ve run off there twice. The key part is the approach and it is weird running up to it, because you can’t even see it as you climb the hill. But it is a pretty amazing corner and it feels like you’re dropping off the end of the earth.” More, from a press release issued by Pramac Racing: FIRST DAY OF WORK AT LAGUNA SECA IS OVER Good first day of work for Randy De Puniet, Pramac Racing rider, who has concluded with the eighth fastest lap time, first with a Ducati. His teammate, Loris Capirossi, has concluded with the sixteenth best lap time as he couldn’t improve this morning lap time. Tomorrow morning another free practice session before the qualifying session that will begin at 2pm. Marco Rigamonti Randy De Puniet Track Engineer “We have made some good step forward this afternoon. Randy was happy about the modifications we have made and tomorrow we can concentrate on maintaining a more stable rhythm. This is a difficult track and to make a perfect lap each time isn’t so simple. Randy has basically used always the same rear tyre and this didn’t also allow us to improve the best lap time at the end of the session, but as for today we can be happy with what we got.” Randy De Puniet Pramac Racing rider 8th in 1’23.135 “A good first day of work. We made it to improve by seventh tenths of a second compare to this morning and this give us good expectations for the next couple of days of work. I really enjoyed today the track, we have tried many solutions but as we kept the same rear tyre during the session we couldn’t make it to improve more in the last few laps. I am confident.” Loris Capirossi Pramac Racing rider”- 16th in 1’24.566 “In the afternoon it was probably more difficult because I only took one painkiller to try to understand which were my real physical conditions. Sincerely I found more complications as I couldn’t make it to ride as in the first free practice session. Tomorrow it will surely not be easy, but I am here to ride and give the maximum to climb the classification.” More, from a press release issued by Dorna Communications: Last year’s Laguna Seca race winner Jorge Lorenzo put in a remarkable run in the second free practice session on Friday, as the Red Bull US Grand Prix kicked off at Laguna Seca. The Yamaha Factory Racing rider led the times with consistent laps from the early part of the session until ending on the top of the field with a time of 1’22.056, one-tenth of a second quicker than the 2009 race winner Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) and four-tenths faster than his own time set in FP1 earlier in the day. In third place in the combined free practice standings was Casey Stoner (Repsol Honda), who had an upset in turn 3, saving the Honda from a crash with his knee. After leading the first practice session, the Australian was 0.175s off the reigning World Champion’s leading time. Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda) was the fourth fastest in the order, with a time of 1’22.537, moving him up one spot from his earlier fifth position. The first American in both sessions was Ben Spies on his Yamaha Factory machine kitted out in a special anniversary livery, improving on his time by two-tenths of a second with a lap of 1’22.615 to put him in fifth place on his home turf. Bigger time improvements were seen from position six onwards, starting with Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini) whose time of 1’22.803 was almost a half second improvement for the crowd favourite, and was 0.253s quicker than seventh place lap of Álvaro Bautista (Rizla Suzuki), who also made a half second step up from the earlier session. Next came Randy de Puniet (Pramac Racing), who jumped from 12th to eighth with a time of 1’23.135, followed by Americans Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) and the fastest Ducati in the pack, that of Nicky Hayden, who, having both the GP11 and GP11.1 available to him, decided on the GP11.1 machine for the duration of the session. Valentino Rossi, who has Crew Chief Jeremy Burgess back in the garage after a two race absence, followed his Ducati Team mate in eleventh position, ahead of Héctor Barberá (Mapfre Aspar) in twelfth and MotoGP rookie Cal Crutchlow (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) in thirteenth, who ran off at the top of the corkscrew in both practice sessions in his first day at the circuit. Wildcard and MotoGP first timer Ben Bostrom riding the RC212V of the LCR Honda Team knocked over a second off his times from the first session though trails four seconds off the leading time. More, from a press release issued by Marlboro Ducati: ROSSI AND HAYDEN WORK ON SETUP FOR LAGUNA SECA Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden posted the 10th and 11th best times, respectively, in the first day of free practice at the United States Grand Prix. The Italian rider continued using the GP11.1. Meanwhile, Hayden did an initial run with the GP11 before doing a comparison between the two versions and then using only the GP11.1 in the afternoon. Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team) 10th (1:23.195) “It’s nice to be back at Laguna, a track I love, and things started off okay with the new bike. It was my first time with it, but it wasn’t something I needed a lot of time to get familiar with since I’ve ridden the GP12, which is similar. We’re just trying to evaluate it, and it definitely has some pluses. The gearbox is really nice, so Ducati has done a great job with that. We’re always trying different things like shock springs and new settings, but it’s not every day that you get to ride with a new gearbox that probably everybody will have in the future. We’re just trying to decide which bike will give us the best chance for a good result on Sunday.” Valentino Rossi (Ducati Team) 11th (1:23.369) “After yesterday’s technical briefing with Jerry and the team, we decided to continue with the new bike, so I only used the GP11.1. We started with one bike that had the Sachsenring setup, which has a significant change to the weight distribution, while the second bike had a standard setup. I actually prefer the one from Germany. We need to keep working to balance the bike and to improve the rear grip, and then we hope to get a little closer to the pace of the others. We have to try to do better than we have at the last couple of races, and especially to start closer to the front. I’m pleased that Bridgestone brought some soft tyres, which worked well in the cool temperatures this morning, although I felt better with the hard when the conditions were warmer in the afternoon. If race conditions are like this, that’s what I’ll use.” More, from a press release issued by Rizla Suzuki: Bautista seventh and on the pace in the Californian sun Álvaro Bautista followed on from his strong performance last weekend in Germany to produce his best first day’s performance of the season so far at Laguna Seca today. Bautista (P7, 1’23.056, 49 laps), was in constant touch with the top-six through the afternoon session, even though he couldn’t find the rear grip from his Rizla Suzuki that he wanted over the 3,610m American circuit. He worked hard with his crew to get the levels of adhesion that he is looking for to make the next step up and compete with the group in front of him. Bautista still believes there is more to come from him and his machine over the rest of the weekend and is in a confident mood as he heads towards tomorrow’s qualifying session. Today’s afternoon practice was held in brilliant sunshine with cloudless skies covering the Laguna Seca Raceway. World Champion Jorge Lorenzo on a Yamaha was the fastest rider of the day, with last weekend’s winner Dani Pedrosa second and current championship leader Casey Stoner in third. Bautista is only a second from first place and will be looking to break into a 1’22 lap tomorrow, a feat which was only achieved by the top-six today. Rizla Suzuki has a free practice session of 45-minutes tomorrow morning followed by an hour of qualifying in the afternoon. Sunday’s 32-lap race is the 10th of the season and the action gets underway at 14.00hrs local time (21.00hrs GMT). Álvaro Bautista: “This morning the track was very cold so we started with the softer tyres and from the beginning it felt like we didn’t have very much grip from the rear when entering a corner. The contact feeling wasn’t quite right so we worked on improving that and we also tried some different electronics settings for the spin control. In the second session the track temperatures had increased so we used the harder compound tyres, but we seemed to have the same problem as this morning with corner entry grip. This didn’t give me a good feeling and made me slower in the corner and on the exit than I wanted to be. We worked hard to try and resolve it but we didn’t quite manage it, so it gives us something to work towards tomorrow. My lap-times and rhythm were not too bad though and I was able to follow some fast guys quite easily, so this is a good sign. I hope that tomorrow we can improve on the rear grip and do some work on the gearbox, because we are not at our maximum here just yet. So we have a lot of work to do on Saturday, but at the moment I am very confident because my feeling is positive like it was last week in Germany.” Paul Denning Team Manager: “It’s been a very solid first day here at Laguna Seca for Álvaro and the Rizla Suzuki team. The performance at Sachsenring last weekend has helped his confidence and it’s clear that he has brought a slightly different tactic to Friday’s sessions to try and be as close to the lead group’s pace as he possibly can, as we head to qualifying on Saturday. We’re pretty close to the front guys everywhere except for the third section, but if we can find a decent step in lap-time there, and improve the overall rear grip, we should be in good shape for the rest of the weekend.” More, from a press release issued by Repsol Honda: The Repsol Honda Team maintains momentum at the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix The Repsol Honda team has started strongly in the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix, placing its riders in the top four positions of the time sheets at the end of the first day of free practice at the legendary Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Dani Pedrosa set a fast lap of 1’22.197 to finish overall second today, just one tenth off the provisional pole position for Jorge Lorenzo, while Casey Stoner was third, thirty four thousandths off Dani, and Andrea Dovizioso, fourth, very close to his team mates. The riders were able to test the Bridgestone soft tyre compound in the morning due to the cold temperatures, and the harder tyre in the afternoon, with the track temperature 15 degrees higher, and both performed reasonably well even if the circuit grip level is still low. The Repsol Honda Team will keep working tomorrow morning to improve the set up of the RC212V to prepare for a strong qualifying practice at a unique circuit, with a combination of hard braking and very fast changes of directions. DANI PEDROSA 2nd 1’22.197 “The second session in the afternoon was pretty interesting, we made some changes on the bike and tried the race tyre, looking to set up the bike to absorb the bumps of which there are many in this track and they especially affect the front. The grip was a little poor today and it was also very windy out there, so we haven’t yet found the perfect ride. In the morning we tried the softer compound and it had a little more grip, and in the afternoon, with the race tyre, it was more difficult to find grip, but perhaps the track conditions were not perfect, so we are hoping to keep improving tomorrow”. CASEY STONER 3rd 1’22.231 “We’ve been trying all day to get a slightly different balance with the bike to get the tyres working differently but we’re struggling to get the feeling that we want and that we’ve had in the past. We’ve changed the set up quite substantially, with pivot positions and trying to get the rear to work with a little less temperature in the tyre, which we’ve accomplished but still haven’t got the grip that we want and we’re creating too much wheel spin. Also, we’re struggling to find a good feeling in the front and just not totally comfortable with the bike in general so we have a some work to do tonight and will continue in the morning to get prepared for qualifying”. ANDREA DOVIZIOSO 4th 1’22.537 “This afternoon we did a comparison between two different set ups and the feeling improved. We still have a gap of four tenths from the first rider, but we lapped more consistently. We need to keep on working to improve the pace and the feeling with the front but in general I’m confident that tomorrow we will be able to make another step forward. Compared to the first free practice, lap times came easier this afternoon and tomorrow we will continue working in this direction”. More, from a press release issued by LCR Honda: LCR HONDA PAIR HAS POSITIVE FEELING AT LAGUNA SECA GP OPENING DAY Monterey, 23 July: productive first day of practices for LCR pair at Laguna Seca race track with Toni Elias setting the 15th lap time overall (1’23.830) whilst local hero Ben Bostrom makes his first outing aboard the Honda RCV qualifying 18th (1’26.159). The reigning Moto2 World Champion completed 24 laps in the afternoon session at the tricky American surface riding one machine only and concentrated on tyres pressures and base overall package. Wildcard Ben Bostrom who is doing double duty with MotoGP and AMA Superbike this weekend knocked over a second off his times from the first session though trails 4 seconds off the leading time. Elias 15th: “This is a tricky track a bit different from the others but I really enjoy racing here. We have been working on bike set as always but here we run only one machine and it’s hard to make big changes: if you do a mistake it’s difficult to come back with only 45-minute session. However this first outing was quite positive and if we can fine tune the bike for tomorrow I am sure we can improve and I can have more fun”. Bostrom 18th: “Well… it was a great experience and I enjoyed myself very much. The adjustment we made for this afternoon session worked better and chassis set up felt better. I feel overall that Bridgestone tyres are very good and the grip level is very high. I am struggling with the front in braking and turning into the corners so, in the last run, I took the opportunity to watch the other riders to see how they brake and how they turn into the corners of “my” race track”.