Casey Stoner was fastest in the opening free practice session for MotoGP’s first American date of the year at Laguna Seca.
A 1m22.300s early in the morning was sufficient to keep championship leader Stoner on top for the rest of the session.
His Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa followed up his Sachsenring win with second this morning, moving to within 0.102 seconds of Stoner with his final lap. Pedrosa was the only man to crash in the session, having a very minor fall when he went into the gravel at Turn 2.
That last-gasp run by Pedrosa demoted Jorge Lorenzo’s Yamaha to third, ahead of team-mate Ben Spies - the top home rider - and the third Honda of Andrea Dovizioso, with Marco Simoncelli (Gresini Honda) sixth. Yahoo! eurosport UK
Ducati Team rider Nicky Hayden began his session on his Ducati GP11, jumping to the top of the timings in the first ten minutes, then changed between the GP11 and GP11.1 on his subsequent outings. He finished the practice seventh with a best lap of 1’23.297, made on the GP11 bike.
On the other side of the Ducati box, Valentino Rossi had two GP11.1 Desmosedici machines, setting a time of 1’23.467 on one of them to put him in ninth position. The second fastest American in the field was Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) whose time of 1’23.459 ranked him eighth behind Hayden. Auto Racing Daily
Pos. Num. Rider Team Time 1 27 Casey STONER Repsol Honda Team 1'22.300 2 26 Dani PEDROSA Repsol Honda Team 1'22.402 3 1 Jorge LORENZO Yamaha Factory Racing 1'22.420 4 11 Ben SPIES Yamaha Factory Racing 1'22.806 5 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO Repsol Honda Team 1'22.911 6 58 Marco SIMONCELLI San Carlo Honda Gresini 1'23.210 7 69 Nicky HAYDEN Ducati Team 1'23.297 8 5 Colin EDWARDS Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1'23.459 9 46 Valentino ROSSI Ducati Team 1'23.467 10 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1'23.529 11 8 Hector BARBERA Mapfre Aspar Team MotoGP 1'23.596 12 14 Randy DE PUNIET Pramac Racing Team 1'23.807 13 35 Cal CRUTCHLOW Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1'24.018 14 24 Toni ELIAS LCR Honda MotoGP 1'24.324 15 65 Loris CAPIROSSI Pramac Racing Team 1'24.566 16 17 Karel ABRAHAM Cardion AB Motoracing 1'24.682 17 7 Hiroshi AOYAMA San Carlo Honda Gresini 1'25.325
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