Track temperatures were much higher for this afternoon’s 60 minute exciting qualifying session at Laguna Seca and the pole position went to the Martillo, Jorge Lorenzo.
Lorenzo who picked up some bruising to his right hip after his highside crash in FP3, did some physiotherapy and took a painkiller and sat back on his M1 and hammered out fast laps almost immediately.
The Yamaha rider took the pole position with a blazing 1.
21.
202 lap, but Casey Stoner, who is not at all satisfied with the perfomance of his Honda so far, did a do or die final lap and caught up to him, and was a mere 0.
072s adrift.
Completing the front row will be the recovering Dani Pedrosa, with the other factory Repsol Honda.
The second row will see Ben Spies, who held the provisional pole briefly but a highspeed crash at the Andretti Hairpin with five minutes to go, didn’t allow him enough time to better his position.
Next to the Yamaha rider will be two Honda riders and Italians, Marco Simoncelli and Andrea Dovizioso.
The third row is all Ducati.
Valentino Rossi qualified seventh, his best so far this season after lingering down in 13th for most of the session.
The Italian also did a final lap lunge, but he’s still a second from the top of the chart.
Hector Barbera finished 8th with a big tow from Dovizioso and Nicky Hayden was 9th after lowsiding at turn 3.
He had to return to track with the GP11.
1 to finish the qualifying practice.
Randy de Puniet crashed at turn 5, 35 minutes into the session and limped away, but it was reported that he went to the medical center with a suspected vertebrae fracture and is undergoing a MRI (15th), while Alvaro Bautista lost the front of his Suzuki on turn 3 and walked away unhurt and finished in 12th with his spare bike.
MotoGP Laguna Seca Qualifying results:01- Jorge Lorenzo – Yamaha Factory Racing Team – Yamaha YZR M1 – 1’21.
20202- Casey Stoner – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC212V – + 0.
07203- Dani Pedrosa – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC212V – + 0.
18304- Ben Spies – Yamaha Factory Racing Team – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.
37605- Marco Simoncelli – San Carlo Honda Gresini – Honda RC212V – + 0.
49406- Andrea Dovizioso – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC212V – + 0.
52907- Valentino Rossi – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP11.
1 – + 1.
03308- Hector Barbera – Mapfre Aspar Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP11 – + 1.
03609- Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP11 – + 1.
06910- Cal Crutchlow – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 1.
18311- Colin Edwards – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 1.
31812- Alvaro Bautista – Rizla Suzuki MotoGP – Suzuki GSV-R – + 1.
46713- Karel Abraham – Cardion AB Motoracing – Ducati Desmosedici GP11 – + 1.
69114- Hiroshi Aoyama – San Carlo Honda Gresini – Honda RC212V – + 1.
73515- Randy De Puniet – Pramac Racing Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP11 – + 1.
75916- Loris Capirossi – Pramac Racing Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP11 – + 2.
67417- Toni Elias – LCR Honda MotoGP – Honda RC212V – + 2.
95418- Ben Bostrom – LCR Honda MotoGP – Honda RC212V – + 4.
089