MotoGP: Lorenzo’s Pole Position Says It All
The MotoGP season is going to reach its halfway mark with the Red Bull US Grand Prix, on the weekend, in Laguna Seca. The Qualifying session was held on Saturday, to determine the starting positions of each rider on the grid.
The Ducati rider, Casey Stoner, was enjoying the lead, until the last minute attempt by the current leader, Jorge Lorenzo, who set an amazing time of 1’20.978, to take away the pole position from the Australian. This is Lorenzo’s fifth pole position in a row and the fortieth in his career, and that tells us as much as we need to know about the superiority of the Spaniard in this year’s championship.
During the course of this pole position, Jorge Lorenzo had to battle hard with Casey Stoner. Although, Lorenzo’s bike, FIAT Yamaha, has displayed more pace and speed than any other bike in the MotoGP, but he was given a tough time by the Australian, who constantly passed him for the first spot. However, in the last moments, Lorenzo set the best time of this weekend, thereby, snatching the first starting position from Stoner. Also, during the course of the whole weekend, Lorenzo is the only driver who is below the 1’21 mark, which really tells the superiority of his machine over other machines.
Casey Stoner, the Ducati rider, did not do well in the first half of the qualifying session. But, in the second half, he out-rode everyone on the grid, constantly setting one fastest lap after another. He also came close to the 1’21 mark, but was unable to cross that time. Also, his Ducati showed a great speed on the corners of the track, which played in his advantage. However, at the last moments of the qualifying session he was beaten down by Jorge Lorenzo, hence, shattering the Australian’s dream of a second pole position in the season. Nevertheless, the bike looks good and the rider looks confident, which is a great deal of improvement from the previous results in the current season.
After Lorenzo and Stoner, the best performer on the track was Andrea Dovizioso, the Rapsol Honda Driver, who took the third spot on the front row of the race. This was the first ever front row start for Dovizioso, who seemed to be struggling a little bit. He was no way near to achieving this position, and had to wait until his last lap of the session. During the 36th and the final lap, he secured his best time which placed him in third place. Also, there was quite a margin between Dovizioso and Stoner, which indicates that no one on the racetrack was close to the superiority of the top two riders.
The last year’s race winner, in Laguna, was the Spaniard Dani Pedrosa. He also holds the second place in the championships, while he won the last race in Germany. However, this time he had to be contented with only a fourth place, in the second row of the starting grid. This was in no way a good performance by the Rapsol Honda rider, who could have done better especially when he had the confidence after a win in Germany, a week before this race.
The fifth place was secured by Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider, Ben Spies, who overcame the time, set by Valentino Rossi, in his last lap of the qualifying session. The current World Champion, Valentino Rossi, was unable to improve his position from the last race, as he took the final spot in the second row of the starting grid, with an unimpressive sixth place in the qualifying session.
The other riders in the top ten were Nicky Hayden, Colin Edwards, Marco Simoncelli and Hector Barbera. The race is due on Sunday, and it is going to be an interesting affair. This time, it seems that, the race would be between three riders, i.e. Casey Stoner, Lorenzo and Pedrosa. The MotoGP fans could not hope for a better race than this one, however, the American fans would be disappointed as their main man, Nicky Hayden, has failed to impress so far.
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