Jorge Lorenzo of Yamaha Factory Racing takes pole position for US Grand Prix – MotoGP news
Yamaha Factory Racing team rider Jorge Lorenzo scored pole position at the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, California for the upcoming 2011 MotoGP US Grand Prix.
The Spaniard will start the race leading the first row along two Repsol Honda riders, Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa.
The Yamaha Factory team is celebrating its 50th anniversary in grand prix racing at Laguna Seca and the bikes, crew kits and garages will be painted red and white for the occasion.
Lorenzo said, “This pole position was unexpected for us after this morning, but thankfully I feel more pain walking than I do riding the bike. Of course I’m not in perfect condition on the bike and for sure I have to put more pressure on my arms and will
get more tired.”
The Spaniard is very pleased to have a pole seat at one of his favourite tracks. His pole seat can help him win the race at Laguna Seca just like the 2010 event. Especially after a crash in FP3, Lorenzo escaped any serious injuries.
Spaniard’s teammate, Ben Spies was strong in the qualifying round as in last moments he paced up to place himself at the second place but for a short while. After a strong effort from the two Repsol riders, he was dropped to fourth place on the final time
sheet.
Spies said, “It wasn’t a bad qualifying session, we tried a couple of things and the race set up is not so bad. We got in qualifying mode and got some pretty good laps in. I made a mistake and locked the front up on the brakes going in to turn three trying
super hard to get on the front row.”
The American made a fine effort to score a position in the first row of his home event. Spies faced a crash in the last part of the qualifying practice session and hurt his hands however suffered no major injuries. Let’s see how he fares on the race day.
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