Fiat Yamaha's Valentino Rossi emerged as the fastest man at Laguna Seca Friday.
It was Fiat Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi who clocked the fastest lap time at Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway during the first practice session of the 2009 Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix. His time of 1’21.981 set on his final lap of the hour long practice session bested teammate Jorge Lorenzo’s time of 1’22.093.
When the session started Marlboro Ducati's Casey Stoner ran off into the gravel but managed to keep his Ducati upright. A few minutes later, Rizla Suzuki’s Chris Vermeulen crashed when his Bridgestone front tire folded over while charging through Turn 11. Vermuelen ran back to the pits and within minutes he was back out on his back-up GSV-R motorcycle. He would finish the afternoon 8th fastest.
For the majority of the session, Casey Stoner was the fastest man on track until Lorenzo bumped him with 20 minutes to go. In fact it appeared that Jorge was going to end the day the fastest until a determined Rossi aced him at the end. Rossi also put in the most amount of laps with the Italian rider turning 32 Laps.
The American contingent of Monster Energy Tech 3’s Colin Edwards finished ninth fastest with a lap time of 1’23.285. Marlboro Ducati’s struggled for most of the session only putting in 24 laps. He finished with a best lap time of 1’23.747—nearly a full 2 seconds of the pace of the front runners.
Riders will get another hour long practice Saturday morning before the afternoon’s hour long qualifying session which will set the grid for Sunday’s 32-lap race.
Marlboro Ducati's Nick Hayden continued to struggle at Laguna with the American nearly 2-seconds off the pace.
1. Valentino Rossi – Fiat Yamaha – 1’21.981
2. Jorge Lorenzo – Fiat Yamaha – 1’21.981
3. Casey Stoner – Marlboro Ducati – 1’22.170
4. Dani Pedrosa – Repsol Honda – 1’22.637
5. Toni Elias – San Carlo Honda – 1’22.682
6. Andrea Dovizioso – Repsol Honda – 1’22.880
7. Marco Melandri – Hayate Racing – 1’23.140
8. Chris Vermeulen – Rizla Suzuki – 1’23.217
9. Colin Edwards – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – 1’23.285
10. Alex De Angeleis – San Carlo Honda – 1’23.406
11. Randy De Puniet – LCR Honda – 1’23.439
12. Loris Capirossi – Rizla Suzuki – 1’23.637
13. James Toseland – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 - 1'23.690
14. Nick Hayden- Marlboro Ducati – 1’23.747
15. Sete Gibernau – Grupo Honda – 1’24.533
