Jorge Lorenzo came back from a spectacular high-side crash Saturday morning and in the afternoon grabbed the pole for Sunday’s Red Bull United States Grand Prix.
Lorenzo edged out MotoGP series points leader Casey Stoner by 0.072 seconds with a quick lap of 1 minute, 21.221 seconds (103.628 mph) on Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca’s 2.238-mile, 11-turn road course.
Lorenzo, the reigning race and series champion on the world’s premier motorcycle-racing circuit, came into the weekend—the 10th of 18 races in 2011—trailing 2007 world champion Stoner by 15 points (168-153).
On the final practice lap Saturday morning, he flew over the handle bars of his factory Yamaha in Turn 5 but came away with only a right thigh contusion.
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MotoGP: U.S. Grand Prix - Race Line Up
MotoGP: Casey Stoner Fastest in First Practice at Laguna Seca
MotoGP: U.S. Grand Prix - First Practice Results
MotoGP: Jorge Lorenzo Fastest in Second Practice at Laguna Seca
MotoGP: U.S. Grand Prix - Second Practice Results
MotoGP: Casey Stoner Fastest in Final Practice at Laguna Seca
MotoGP: U.S. Grand Prix - Final Practice Results
After the crash, “I was thinking the race was over for me,” the diminutive Spaniard said. “To get pole position, I didn’t think it could happen.”
On the final lap of qualifying, with the checkered flag already flying, Stoner stole second on the grid at 99.108 mph from Repsol Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa, whose fastest lap (98.972 mph) was 0.183 seconds slower than Lorenzo’s. San Jose Mercury News
Spies will head row two for tomorrow’s Grand Prix and he’ll be joined there by San Carlo Honda’s Marco Simoncelli and Repsol Honda’s Andrea Dovizioso.
With a fast lap late in the session, Valentino Rossi improved to seventh where he will lead an all-Ducati third row with Hector Barbera and Nicky Hayden. Hayden crashed in Rainey Curve with some 18 minutes left in the hour-long session. He would run back to the pits, get a second Ducati and continue on - ultimately ending up ninth fastest.
Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Cal Crutchlow ended the session 10th - surprisingly quicker than his teammate Colin Edwards in his first trip to the Monterey Peninsula. Cycle News
American wildcard Ben Bostrom on the LCR Honda improved his time over half a second again, though still remains 18th in the timings, one second behind team mate Toni Elias and four seconds off the pole position time.
Other incidents in the qualifying outing were the crashes of Álvaro Bautista (Rizla Suzuki) and Randy de Puniet (Pramac Racing). Bautista lost the front end in turn 3 and had a high speed tumble across the gravel, though was unhurt and immediately up and running to his box, while De Puniet slid off slid off in turn 5 and while he was able to walk away suffered fractures to the L3 and L5 Transverse Processes in his back and a suspected crack to the iliac bone in his hip. motogp.com
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