Sunday 25th July 2010 - 10:42:10
MotoGP Lugana Seca Lorenzo Takes Pole, Soner 2nd Rossi On Second Row In Laguna
Jorge Lorenzo
Jorge Lorenzo took an impressive fifth consecutive pole at Laguna Seca, the 40th of his career across all classes, with Ducati rider Casey Stoner in second.. Lorenzo's 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.
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."
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."
Valentino Rossi Position: 6 Time: 1'21.688
"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."
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."
Qualifying Times
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