Lorenzo quickest in misty final Laguna Seca practice
In the final practice of the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix at Laguna Seca, misty conditions known as "marine cloud" put paid to the majority of the session during which Yamaha Factory Racings Jorge Lorenzo went fastest ahead of Ben Spies and Nicky Hayden.
In a session that started in thick fog with a slightly greasy and damp track surface only a hand full of riders went out for exploratory runs to check conditions. Most notably, Attack Performance wildcard Steve Rapp put in a big number of laps, as he looked to get his CRT bike to a more competitive level, managing to shave two seconds off his best time from yesterday. However with approximately 12 minutes remaining the majority of riders took to the track to put in at least a hand full of laps. The only riders not to go out were Repsol Honda Teams Dani Pedrosa and Casey Stoner.
With conditions not matching the sunny skies of yesterday, most riders will have learned little from their short outing, however Lorenzos time of 1.21445 was less than a tenth slower than his best lap yesterday. This may be a sing of improvements to come in qualifying this afternoon, as teammate Ben Spies was over eight tenths behind in second place. Home crowd favourite, Ducati Teams Nicky Hayden, set the third quickest time ahead of Monster Yamaha Tech 3s Cal Crutchlow.
Haydens teammate Valentino Rossi brought his bike home in fifth, followed by the two Honda satellite machines of LCR Honda MotoGPs Stefan Bradl and San Carlo Honda Gresinis lvaro Bautista. Power Electronics Aspar riders Randy de Puniet and Aleix Espargar put in some good laps to end the morning eighth and ninth, with Cardion AB Racings Karel Abraham completing the top ten. Avintia Blusens Ivn Silva, who was one of the first out on track suffered a couple of runs off the circuit, yet avoided any major crashes.
Laguna Seca is a track known to suffer adverse weather conditions in the mornings, yet it is predicted to be a warm and sunny qualifying session this afternoon1. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha 1m21.445s2. Ben Spies Yamaha 1m22.268s + 0.823s3. Nicky Hayden Ducati 1m22.688s + 1.243s4. Cal Crutchlow Tech 3 Yamaha 1m23.021s + 1.576s5. Valentino Rossi Ducati 1m23.294s + 1.849s6. Stefan Bradl LCR Honda 1m23.832s + 2.387s7. Alvaro Bautista Gresini Honda 1m24.189s + 2.744s8. Randy de Puniet Aspar Aprilia 1m24.398s + 2.953s9. Aleix Espargaro Aspar Aprilia 1m24.506s + 3.061s10. Karel Abraham Cardion Ducati 1m24.572s + 3.127s11. Yonny Hernandez Avintia FTR-Kawasaki 1m24.749s + 3.304s12. Mattia Pasini Speed Master Aprilia 1m25.244s + 3.799s13. Toni Elias Pramac Ducati 1m25.438s + 3.993s14. Danilo Petrucci Ioda-Aprilia 1m26.283s + 4.838s15. Colin Edwards Forward Suter-BMW 1m26.315s + 4.870s16. James Ellison Paul Bird Aprilia 1m26.488s + 5.043s17. Ivan Silva Avintia Inmotec-Kawasaki 1m27.067s + 5.622s18. Steve Rapp Attack-Kawasaki 1m27.486s + 6.041s19. Michele Pirro Gresini FTR-Honda 1m27.778s + 6.333s20. Andrea Dovizioso Tech 3 Yamaha 1m33.726s + 12.281s21. Casey Stoner Honda22. Dani Pedrosa Honda
