Laguna Seca 2013 - MotoGP - FP1 - Full

Friday, 19 July 2013

Cal Crutchlow led Friday’s first practice session ahead of the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix. The Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider headed Yamaha Factory Racing’s Valentino Rossi and Repsol Honda Team’s Marc Marquez. Both Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa were declared fit, but the latter elected to rest on the sidelines.

Amid cool and misty conditions, the field paced themselves in a bid to avoid incidents. Despite being annoyed mid-session following a near miss with Power Electronics Aspar’s Randy de Puniet, Crutchlow posted the quickest time of 1’22.757 which edged out Rossi by less than one tenth of a second. Championship leader Marquez was two tenths off the pace on his first visit to the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, which hosts Round 9 of 18 this season.

Stefan Bradl and Alvaro Bautista completed the top five for LCR Honda MotoGP and GO&FUN Honda Gresini, respectively, whereas World Champion Lorenzo (Yamaha Factory Racing) cautiously rode his way to 11th position and was informed via his pit board that 2013 newcomer Marquez, learning the track, was following him on the circuit.

Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team) decided not to ride in order to avoid excessive stress on his injured left collarbone, while wildcard rider Blake Young finished 21st for Attack Performance Racing and ahead of both regular CRT riders Bryan Staring (GO&FUN Honda Gresini) and Lukas Pesek (Came IodaRacing Project). MotoGP™ Free Practice 2 will start at 2:05pm local time (GMT -7).

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Lorenzo on his return to action at Laguna Seca

Thursday, 18 July 2013

Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo, who only last week re-injured his already broken left collarbone, spoke to motogp.com the evening before the first free practice in Laguna Seca about how he would approach the weekend if passed fit by circuit doctors.

The Spaniard, who had ridden in Assen three weeks ago less than two days after suffering a double broken left collarbone, once again re-damaged the plated injury after a heavy crash in the following round at the Sachsenring. He had initially tweeted that he would sit out the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix and wait for a full recovery before Indianapolis, but feeling slightly better and with the championship closely bunched, decided to travel to America to race.

He commented: "This is the second operation I got in my left collarbone in a month or even less, so it’s not easy to get out all the inflammation. But anyway, I think I am a little bit better than in Assen - there I had only one day of recovery, and now I’ve had almost one week. So I’m better than in Assen, but worse than in Germany."

On his decision to reverse his statement and come out to race he said: "To be honest, I thought it was over, Laguna Seca….I was tired after so many crashes in little time. And two more injuries! I was thinking to stay calm and stay at home and not go to Laguna. But then of course the crash of Dani, that gave me more chance in the championship – and also I felt much better two days later. This for me changed my mind."

Lorenzo is well aware of the physical nature of the track, yet has past experience of not being in great shape there: "It has a lot of changes in direction, and a lot of up and downhill, and it’s a very short track, so we’re going to make 30 laps or even more. When you are perfect physically it’s very hard to finish the race – imagine you are injured, like I’m going to be these days. But also I’ve got some experience here of riding injured.

"In 2008 I was still injured in my two ankles…I re-broke those two ankles in the first lap. But especially in 2009, I didn’t break the collarbone, but had an injury in the ligament of the collarbone. So I raced in a very bad condition and finished third. And in 2011 I crashed after practice when the traction control didn’t work and I had a bad highside and got injured badly in my hip. So I’ve got experience here in Laguna racing injured."

About whether he has set any concrete goals for the weekend he answered: "We don’t know what my condition will be on the bike. Tomorrow we will see. In Laguna in the morning it is normally very cold and slippery with a lot of fog and humidity. It is best to be very calm, see the other riders first before going on track, and be very progressive. This important thing is not to crash, finish this race and lose the minimum points possible."

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Le Championnat du Monde eni FIM Superbike se rend à Moscou cette semaine pour la huitième manche de la saison 2013. La piste russe avait accueilli le paddock WSBK pour la première fois l'an dernier lors d'un rendez-vous unique.

Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) arrive en Russie en étant devenu le premier pilote Kawasaki à mener le classement Superbike depuis Scott Russell en 1994. Russell était alors le Champion en titre et était passé en tête en s'offrant un doublé de victoires à Sugo, au Japon, avant de concéder le titre à Carl Fogarty.

Sykes vise désormais le record de la plus longue série de pole positions, fixé à sept et établi par Ben Spies. Intouchable en Tissot-Superpole depuis la seconde manche de la saison, le Britannique a largement dominé la dernière épreuve à Imola, où il a fini premier puis deuxième.

Délogé du sommet du classement général pour la première fois de l'année, Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia Racing Team) sera ce week-end l'un des principaux candidats pour freiner la déferlante Tom Sykes. Le Français avait vécu un week-end difficile à Moscou l'an dernier, qu'il avait conclu avec un abandon et une onzième place.

Eugene Laverty (Aprilia Racing Team) et Marco Melandri (BMW Motorrad GoldBet) devront impérativement finir sur le podium pour conserver leurs chances de remporter le titre mondial cette année puisque les deux pilotes sont respectivement à 45 et 53 points du leader à l'approche de la huitième manche. Melandri avait vécu en Russie l'an dernier l'un des plus grands moments de sa carrière puisqu'il était passé en tête du Championnat pour la toute première fois, avant de la concéder lors de l'épreuve suivante.

Après avoir roulé à Suzuka pour préparer leur participation à la course d'endurance des 8 Heures qui aura lieu à la fin du mois, Jonathan Rea et Leon Haslam du team Pata Honda retrouveront leur équipe habituelle ce week-end et tenteront de profiter des progrès réalisés lord du Test Officiel post-course à Imola.

Bien qu'ils ne soient toujours pas montés sur le podium cette année, Leon Camier (FIXI Crescent Suzuki) et Carlos Checa (Team Ducati Alstare) espèrent changer la donne sur la seconde partie de la saison et pourquoi pas ce week-end en Russie.

Loris Baz (Kawasaki Racing Team) avait pris une onzième et une neuvième places en Russie l'an dernier mais visera cette fois-ci le Top 5 tandis que Jules Cluzel (FIXI Crescent Suzuki) avait décroché la pole position et la deuxième place en Supersport.

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