Lorenzo soars to Laguna Seca pole

Added on Saturday, July 23rd, 2011 by Carole Nash Editor | No Comments

Jorge Lorenzo transferred a dominant qualifying session into pole position at Laguna Seca today, ahead of tomorrow’s MotoGP race.

Lorenzo held the prominent spot for the majority of the outing, with Dani Pedrosa and Casey Stoner keeping a close eye on the Yamaha rider in second and third places, respectively. With the championship lead still currently favouring Stoner, the Repsol Honda rider was keen to keep the pressure on, especially after he topped the third free practice session earlier in the day.

Determind to overcome Lorenzo’s stranglehold on the qualifying hour, a late charge from Ben Spies saw the American steal top spot with just twelve minutes to go. However, shortly afterwards Lorenzo was able to stake his claim to the position by returning to the top.

As the chequered flag made its appearance Lorenzo led home the field, with a late surge from Stoner to go second, ahead of Pedrosa in third. With the top three putting in strong performances in the closing stages, Spies was gradually demoted to fourth place, however still has a strong position ahead of tomorrow’s race.

Marco Simoncelli set the fifth fastest time, ahead of Andrea Dovizioso and Valentino Rossi. Hector Barbera will start alongside Rossi in eighth place, with Nicky Hayden set to complete the third row of the grid. Cal Crutchlow will head the fourth row of the grid, also completing the top ten riders at the impressive Laguna Seca circuit.

Colin Edwards narrowly missed out on the top ten qualifying eleventh, ahead of Alvaro Bautista and Karel Abraham. Hiroshi Aoyama set the fourteenth fastest time, to edge out Randy De Puniet and the returning Loris Capirossi. Toni Elias will start seventeenth, with new rider Ben Bostrom rounding out the field in eighteenth place for the LCR Honda team.

Qualifying Positions, MotoGP, Laguna Seca:

Pos.	Rider	Nation	Team	Time
1	Jorge LORENZO	SPA	Yamaha Factory Racing	1’21.202
2	Casey STONER	AUS	Repsol Honda Team	1’21.274
3	Dani PEDROSA	SPA	Repsol Honda Team	1’21.385
4	Ben SPIES	USA	Yamaha Factory Racing	1’21.578
5	Marco SIMONCELLI	ITA	San Carlo Honda Gresini	1’21.696
6	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	ITA	Repsol Honda Team	1’21.731
7	Valentino ROSSI	ITA	Ducati Team	1’22.235
8	Hector BARBERA	SPA	Mapfre Aspar Team MotoGP	1’22.238
9	Nicky HAYDEN	USA	Ducati Team	1’22.271
10	Cal CRUTCHLOW	GBR	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	1’22.385
11	Colin EDWARDS	USA	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	1’22.520
12	Alvaro BAUTISTA	SPA	Rizla Suzuki MotoGP	1’22.669
13	Karel ABRAHAM	CZE	Cardion AB Motoracing	1’22.893
14	Hiroshi AOYAMA	JPN	San Carlo Honda Gresini	1’22.937
15	Randy DE PUNIET	FRA	Pramac Racing Team	1’22.961
16	Loris CAPIROSSI	ITA	Pramac Racing Team	1’23.876
17	Toni ELIAS	SPA	LCR Honda MotoGP	1’24.156
18	Ben BOSTROM	USA	LCR Honda MotoGP	1’25.291

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