Buzzin MotoGP

Casey Stoner on the Ducati Marlboro took the pole position last night for this evening’s US MotoGP at Laguna Seca.

Stoner had dominated the track all weekend and set his qualifying lap just six minutes into the session only bettered by himself, and ending with a time of 1:20.700, ahead of Valentino Rossi, his closest rival on the Fiat Yamaha and who is leading the championship.

Dani Pedrosa, rider of the Repsol Honda, who is currently second in the overall standings, withdrew from qualifying and will not be taking part in the race.

Pedrosa rode in both practice sessions of Friday with modified gloves to help protect his injured hand, but he needed to be given a pain killing injection between sessions. He ended the day in fifteenth place but almost three seconds off Stoner’s pace.

The pain just proved too much for the Spanish rider this weekend and he felt that he would not be able to complete thirty-two laps of a race.

Nicky Hayden was a fantastic third on the Repsol Honda ahead of James Toseland on the Yamaha Tech 3 and Randy de Puniet on the LCR Honda.

Colin Edwards couldn’t improve on his seventh position on the second Yamaha Tech 3, followed by Rizla Suzuki rider Chris Vermeulen and Andrea Dovizioso on the JiR Honda.

Toni Elias finished in a surprising tenth spot despite sliding off the circuit on the Alice Ducati on the final lap, giving him his best qualifying position of the season so far.

Jamie Hacking, the stand-in rider for the injured John Hopkins of the Kawasaki team crashed his machine with fifteen minutes of the session remaining and sprinted back to the pits. He finished in fifteenth place, 1.2 seconds ahead of regular Kawasaki rider Anthony West.

Both Honda Gresini riders crashed out during the session as Shinya Nakano went off track, slid through the gravel and ploughed into the air bag. Alex de Angelis high-sided and landed hard onto the circuit, and although obviously in some pain his arm, he was back on the bike within ten minutes but could only qualify in sixteenth place.

Here are the results;

Pos  Rider             Bike           Time
 1.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    (B)  1:20.700
 2.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    (B)  1:21.147  + 0.447
 3.  Nicky Hayden      Honda     (M)  1:21.430  + 0.730
 4.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha    (M)  1:21.864  + 0.936
 5.  James Toseland    Yamaha    (M)  1:21.848  + 1.148
 6.  Randy de Puniet   Honda     (M)  1:21.921  + 1.221
 7.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    (M)  1:21.947  + 1.247
 8.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    (B)  1:21.971  + 1.271
 9.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda     (M)  1:21.974  + 1.274
10.  Toni Elias        Ducati    (B)  1:21.999  + 1.299
11.  Loris Capirossi   Suzuki    (B)  1:22.039  + 1.339
12.  Shinya Nakano     Honda     (B)  1:22.092  + 1.392
13.  Ben Spies         Suzuki    (B)  1:22.147  + 1.427
14.  Sylvain Guintoli  Ducati    (B)  1:22.719  + 2.019
15.  Marco Melandri    Ducati    (B)  1:22.957  + 2.257
16.  Alex de Angelis   Honda     (B)  1:23.035  + 2.335
17.  Jamie Hacking     Kawasaki  (B)  1:23.309  + 2.609
18.  Anthony West      Kawasaki  (B)  1:24.525  + 3.825