ROSSI MAKES PROMISING START TO AMERICAN ASSAULT
Valentino Rossi made a good start to his US Grand Prix weekend
today, finishing the day third fastest in the overall standings
at Laguna Seca. His best time of 1’22.679 was set this
morning and is just over a tenth of a second off last year’s
lap record.
This morning’s first free practice was run in unexpectedly
cool temperatures but the Italian’s M1 worked well out
of the box and he was second fastest, 0.764 seconds of Casey
Stoner. Rossi was confident of being able to improve his times
this afternoon as the track heated up but the temperature
increased by only a few degrees and he was unable to better
his time from this morning. He is nonetheless confident that
he has not yet reached his full potential here and will be
able to make further improvements tomorrow.
Rossi’s team-mate Jorge Lorenzo was 13th fastest on
what is his first ever ride at this track, whilst the time
sheets were topped by Casey Stoner, with Nicky Hayden in second.
Valentino Rossi
Position: 3 Time: 1'22.679 Laps: 65
“We started quite well this morning and we were quite
fast from the start. We used our standard base setting and
it seemed to work quite well here, and I think that in fact
I could have gone faster this morning but in my last run my
grip wasn’t perfect so I slowed down. This morning I
was quite happy but this afternoon we tried to modify something
in the set-up of the bike, because we’re still looking
for the ideal configuration for this track, and it wasn’t
as good as we had hoped. Now we must put the best things of
each session together and then I believe we will be able to
be some tenths faster tomorrow. We have a good potential here
and I know we haven’t reached it yet; we need to do
some work on the suspension but the Bridgestones are good
which is encouraging. I am looking forward to making more
progress tomorrow and closing the gap to Stoner.”
Davide Brivio
Team Manager
“Overall this has been a good day. We are quite pleased
with how we started this morning and now we’re working
hard to fine-tune our set-up, especially the suspension, chassis
and electronic mapping, in order to optimise our potential
here. It was cooler than we expected today but our Bridgestone
tyres are working very well at this track. We didn’t
improve this afternoon as much as we’d hoped but we
will look at the data tonight and continue with our work in
the morning.”
Combined Free Practice Times
1. Casey Stoner (AUS) Ducati Marlboro 1'21.826
2. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda 1'22.634
3. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Fiat Yamaha Team 1'22.679
4. Alex De Angelis (RSM) San Carlo Honda Gresini 1'22.808
5. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Rizla Suzuki 1'22.847
6. Shinya Nakano (JPN) San Carlo Honda Gresini 1'22.924
7. Colin Edwards (USA) Tech 3 Yamaha 1'23.077
8. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) JiR Team Scot MotoGP 1'23.097
9. Toni Elias (SPA) Alice Team 1'23.114
10. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1'23.185
11. Ben Spies (USA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1'23.244
12. Marco Melandri (ITA) Ducati Marlboro 1'23.317
13. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Fiat Yamaha Team 1'23.415
14. Sylvain Guintoli (FRA) Alice Team 1'23.495
15. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda 1'23.707
16. James Toseland (GBR) Tech 3 Yamaha 1'23.943
17. Randy De Puniet (FRA) LCR Honda MotoGP 1'23.955
18. Jamie Hacking (USA) Kawasaki Racing Team 1'24.050
19. Anthony West (AUS) Kawasaki Racing 1'24.483
Laguna Seca: Record Lap
C. Stoner (Ducati) 2007, 1'22.542
Laguna Seca: Best Lap
C. Stoner (Ducati) 2007, 1'21.975
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