Today’s MotoGP first free practice at Laguna Seca opened to the usual cool morning temperatures and some fog that quickly burned out revealing a splendid and sunny day.
The fastest rider of the morning practice was Dani Pedrosa who lead most of the session until Jorge Lorenzo slowly worked up to post his best time, but the Repsol Honda rider again bettered his lap time and on his penultimate lap posted a 1.
21.
424, left Lorenzo adrift by just 0.
074s and it isn’t know whether Pedrosa did his best lap with the complete 2013 bike that the team debuted during the Mugello post race test or continued using his 2012 machine.
Taking third was Casey Stoner who was 0.
405s adrift and he seemed unsatisfied with his tires again.
The Australian is using the 2013 engine and this year’s chassis.
Ben Spies who announced that he is quitting Yamaha at the end of the year (a suprised Massimo Meregalli didn’t know of Spies decision said that he received a text message at the same time that fans were informed via Twitter) was fourth, and he managed to head under the 1.
22 mark in his final two laps.
Andrea Dovizioso took fifth and was already more than a second off pace from his Yamaha counterpart and Tech3 team mate Cal Crutchlow (who is still hanging on to find out if he’ll be pairing up with Nicky Hayden next season in Ducati) was sixth.
Valentino Rossi jumped up to 7th with his last flying lap after lingering in 10th for most of the session and using some upgraded parts that the Ducati team tested at Mugello.
Stefan Bradl was 8th and it was first time at Laguna Seca on a prototype machine after spending a track day at the beginning of June on a 2012 CBR1000RR bike.
Nicky Hayden who has signed with Ducati this weekend (smart marketimg move by the Italiam manufacturer to keep him) and debuting a new helmet design for his home race which he dubbed Easy Hayden and the chin bar is painted to appear as an open faced helmet fnished the session in 9th while Alvaro Bautista closed out the top ten and he was more that two seconds from Pedrosa.
Colin Edwards was the fastest CRT rider with his Suter-BMW branded Forward Racing, while Toni Elias who is replacing injured Hector Barbera this weekend in Pramac Racing was 15th.
Karel Abraham is back on his Cardion AB Ducati after missimg the last three rounds due to a lingering hand injury.
This weekend will also see the debut of Attack Performances CRT machine with a Kawasaki Zx-10R engine.
Steve Rapp who is riding the machine was last and more than eight seconds from Lorenzo, and he already didn’t make the 107% cut MotoGP Laguna Seca FP1 Results:01- Dani Pedrosa – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – 1’21.
424 02- Jorge Lorenzo – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.
074 03- Casey Stoner – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – + 0.
405 04- Ben Spies – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.
515 05- Andrea Dovizioso – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 1.
185 06- Cal Crutchlow – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 1.
248 07- Valentino Rossi – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP12 – + 1.
792 08- Stefan Bradl – LCR Honda MotoGP – Honda RC213V – + 1.
825 09- Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP12 – + 1.
886 10- Alvaro Bautista – San Carlo Honda Gresini – Honda RC213V – + 2.
113 11- Colin Edwards – NGM Mobile Forward Racing – Suter BMW – + 3.
481 12- Aleix Espargaro – Power Electronics Aspar – ART GP12 – + 3.
745 13- Karel Abraham – Cardion AB Motoracing – Ducati Desmosedici GP12 – + 3.
791 14- Mattia Pasini – Speed Master Team – ART GP12 – + 4.
064 15- Toni Elias – Pramac Racing Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP12 – + 4.
392 16- Yonny Hernandez – Avintia Blusens – BQR MotoGP – + 4.
480 17- James Ellison – Paul Bird Motorsport – ART GP12 – + 4.
507 18- Danilo Petrucci – CAME Iodaracing Project – Ioda TR003 – + 4.
701 19- Michele Pirro – San Carlo Honda Gresini – FTR Honda MGP12 – + 4.
997 20- Randy De Puniet – Power Electronics Aspar – ART GP12 – + 5.
279 21- Ivan Silva – Avintia Blusens – BQR MotoGP – + 5.
678 22- Steve Rapp – Attack Performance – Attack Perfromance APR – + 8.
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