Lorenzo Fast on Friday at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca

Henny Ray Abrams | July 22, 2011

MONTEREY, CA, JULY 22 – Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo survived one scary moment to set the fastest time in combined Friday practice for the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, the 10th round of the MotoGP World ChampionshipThe 2010 Laguna Seca winner was coming through the banked, downhill right-hand turn 10 when his Yamaha quickly got away from him late in the 45-minute session, held on a warm, sunny afternoon at the track outside of Monterey. Lorenzo held on and rode it out, though that was a lost lap. Turn 10 is the same corner where Lorenzo violently highsided in during qualifying 2009, suffering damage to his foot and shoulder. It was his second crash of that session.Today Lorenzo lapped the 2.243-mile circuit, the shortest on the calendar, in 1:22.056. The time fell well short of Casey Stoner’s pole time of 1:20.700 from 2008 in the days before control tires.The Repsol Honda team came next, all three in a row. Dani Pedrosa was second, .141 of a second off Lorenzo’s pace, followed by Stoner, .175 of a second back, and Andrea Dovizioso, .481 of a second from Lorenzo.Ben Spies was sixth at 1:22.615 in the first of his two home races and .559 of a second from his Yamaha teammate.San Carlo Honda Gresini’s Marco Simoncelli followed with Rizla Suzuki’s Alvaro Bautista exactly one second behind Lorenzo.The first Ducati was eighth fastest Randy de Puniet of the Pramac Racing Team. The next two were 10th and 11th, Nicky Hayden in front of Ducati Marlboro teammate Valentino Rossi, the pair separated by .012 of a second. In between de Puniet and the Ducatis was Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Colin Edwards.Ben Bostrom, the final American in the field, was 18th fastest on the LCR Honda RC212V. The Jordan Suzuki rider was 4.103 seconds slower than Lorenzo and 1.5 seconds slower than 17th fastest Loris Capirossi (Pramac Racing Team Ducati).MotoGP Results:1. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) 1:22.056

2. Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 1:22.197

3. Casey Stoner (Honda) 1:22.231

4. Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) 1:22.537

5. Ben Spies (Yamaha) 1:22.615

6. Marco Simoncelli (Honda) 1:22.803

7. Alvaro Bautista (Suzuki) 1:23.056

8. Randy de Puniet (Ducati) 1:23.135

9. Colin Edwards (Yamaha) 1:23.183

10. Nicky Hayden (Ducati) 1:23.195

11. Valentino Rossi (Ducati) 1:23.369

18. Ben Bostrom (Honda) 1:26.159

 

Henny Ray Abrams | Contributing Editor

Abrams is the longest-serving contributor at Cycle News. Over the course of his 35-some years of writing and shooting photos, he’s covered events from MotoGP to the Motocross World Championship - and everything in between.