Written by:
SPEED Staff
SPEEDtv.com
Fiat Yamaha Team's Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi (Photo: Yamaha Racing)
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PROGRAMMING NOTE: MotoGP Qualifying from Laguna Seca will air on SPEED on Saturday, July 4 at 10:00pm ET.
The first of two American races this season got underway for MotoGP at Laguna Seca today with a strong showing from the Fiat Yamaha Team pairing of Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo, who finished first and second respectively. The spectacular Californian track was bathed in sunshine throughout the day and the riders took full advantage to begin refining their set-ups to suit the tricky nature of the 3.601 km track.
Rossi won in spectacular fashion here last year and he looked immediately comfortable out on track, lapping consistently in the top three aboard his M1 and Bridgestone tires. Lorenzo meanwhile, who did not complete the race here last year on his Laguna debut, proved lack of track experience was no barrier to fast lap times and spent most of the session in second before setting a brilliant lap with 11 minutes to go and moving into first. He looked to have the practice sewn up until his championship-leading teammate sneaked ahead on his final lap, bettering the Spaniard’s lap time by just one tenth of a second.
Valentino Rossi Position: 1st Time: 1'21.981 Laps: 32
“I am happy with the session today, it was a good performance and at the end, with the harder tire, we did an especially good job and I was able to make the best time. We got a lot of data about the track, which we will use tomorrow in order to improve things further. We need to work a bit to improve the front feeling because we can still make the bike a bit easier to ride in one or two corners and then we will also look at the electronics in order to control the wheelie, because there are a lot of bumps and jumps on this circuit. Once again me, Lorenzo and Stoner are very close so we can expect another big fight this weekend, but we are confident that our M1 is working well."
