Today’s qualifying session was a battle royale between Jorge Lorenzo and Casey Stoner who faced off on who would take the pole position for tomorrow’s Laguna Seca race and it was the Spaniard, who is now known as the El Martillo (the hammer) who hammered out a blistering lap of 1′20″978 in the dying minutes of the session to take his fifth consecutive pole position of the season and breaking the 2009 pole record going under the 1.21 mark.

Casey Stoner despite a series of hot laps had to settle for second place on grid, but both riders were in another league compared to the rest of the field and using different tires, Lorenzo on the softer ones while Stoner’s best time was on hard tires.

Andrea Dovizioso took third and on the front row for the first time and was almost half a second off the two front runners, while team mate Dani Pedrosa had to settle for fourth. Ben Spies pipped Valentino Rossi for fifth. The Italian is accusing physical and set-up problems on the tortuous Californian circuit.

American’s Nicky Hayden and Colin Edwards were paired up again taking seventh and eighth. Marco Simoncelli qualified ninth with his new electronics packet that Honda brought in for him while Hecter Barbera closed out the top ten, using tows from several riders.

MotoGP Laguna Seca Qualifying Results:

1. Jorge LORENZO, Spain (Yamaha), 1:20.978
2. Casey STONER, Australia (Ducati), 1:21.169
3. Andrea DOVIZIOSO, Italy (Honda), 1:21.617
4. Dani PEDROSA, Spain (Honda), 1:21.655
5. Ben SPIES, USA (Yamaha), 1:21.679
6. Valentino ROSSI, Italy (Yamaha), 1:21.688
7. Nicky HAYDEN, USA (Ducati), 1:21.920
8. Colin EDWARDS, USA (Yamaha), 1:22.217
9. Marco SIMONCELLI, Italy (Honda), 1:22.300
10. Hector BARBERA, Spain (Ducati), 1:22.366
11. Marco MELANDRI, Italy (Honda), 1:22.407
12. Loris CAPIROSSI, Italy (Suzuki), 1:22.647
13. Aleix ESPARGARO, Spain (Ducati), 1:22.712
14. Alvaro BAUTISTA, Spain (Suzuki), 1:22.770
15. Mika KALLIO, Finland (Ducati), 1:23.127, crash
16. Alex DE ANGELIS, San Marino (Honda), 1:23.226
17. Roger Lee HAYDEN, USA (Honda), 1:23.764

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