Check out our last gallery of images from the Laguna Seca MotoGP weekend. The teams went all out, picking out some of the finest ‘California Gurls’ to represent the USGP as paddock and grid girls and hold up those very essential umbrellas over the riders. Enjoy the pics.

Continue reading: MotoGP Laguna Seca Grid Girls

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After our first gallery of photos from the 2011 USGP at Laguna Seca. We’ve put together another whopping 182 photos for you to enjoy.

To see all of them, just click on one of the images.

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We’ve got our first batch of photos from the tenth round of the MotoGP championship taken at the Mazda Speedway circuit for you to enjoy.

The standings now show Casey Stoner retaking a firmer grip on the lead with + 20 points over Jorge Lorenzo with his 5th victory of the season, and Dani Pedrosa after missing three races has now moved into fourth and is 33 points from Andrea Dovizioso who is currently third.

To see even more from the Laguna Seca, just click on one of the minutures to open up the rest of the gallery.

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We’ve already covered what Casey Stoner and the podium guys and the Ducati factory team had to say about their Laguna Seca GP race, here’s what the rest of the field had to say and what happened and why, with everyone welcoming this three week break until Brno.

Ben Spies - 4th

“I got a really good start but going uphill to the steep part of the track basically we didn’t have enough power. I got stuck behind Valentino, I tried to get around as quick as I could but he’s really good on the brakes so it was pretty tough but I did the best I could. Once we got around him it was quite a big gap to Dovizioso but I just kept my head down and kept going. I’m happy we were able to track him down and get fourth. It was a really good race for us it just got spoilt in the first five hundred feet. I would have liked to have been on the podium as I think we had a package to fight with Dani, I guess that’s racing and I gave it 100% as always.”

Andrea Dovizioso - 5th

“We knew that it was going to be a tough race because this track is short, with very strong braking and it’s also very demanding. I made a good start and I was able to move into fourth position. In the first laps I pushed hard to stay with Casey, Dani and Lorenzo. I was loosing a lot in some corners, such as T3 and T11 and to recover I was pushing in the other areas. I used up a lot of energy and I couldn’t be consistent for the 32 laps. I’m disappointed because today we had the speed to fight for a good result, in fact I lapped two tenths behind the fastest lap, but I couldn’t be consistent. I lost the battle with Spies and this is the first time I’ve lost a battle this year. The good point is that we were able to be fast. Now we have to focus and continue working, we are third in the Championship and we want to keep on fighting. We will take advantage of the three week break to recharge the batteries and return in Brno more determined. My congratulations go to Casey and Dani”.

Continue reading: The rest of the best talk about Laguna Seca GP

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The USGP wasn’t as exciting as the race at Sachsenring, but Casey Stoner who is known as the ‘Monster of the Lagoon’ turned what he considered a struggling weekend (a breakthrough in warm-up turned it around for him) into a highly charged victory and impressing fans not only with two hot passes; one going into the famed Corkscrew to overtake Dani Pedrosa and the second, an outside pass at the end of the very short Mazda Speedway straight that bent Jorge Lorenzo’s will, but with the racecraft he used this time.

Here’s what the Laguna Seca podium had to say:

Casey Stoner: “All weekend we’ve been struggling a little so we weren’t too confident that we could run with Jorge and Dani in the race. However, this morning in warm up we found something I was a little happier with. Before the race I felt relaxed, confident and generally calm, we started a little slower to get the tyres warm gently but also with a full tank of fuel, the bike didn’t feel that great. So I was patient and took my time, staying with Jorge and Dani to control the gap and make sure they didn’t get too far away. I felt I had more speed but decided to wait and watch. I saw Dani struggling a bit and he started to drop back from Jorge so I had to attack at this point. Once I caught up to Jorge, I watched to see if he made a mistake and kept the pressure on him, then chose my moment to make the move and was able to slowly open up a gap and bring the race home. It’s really fantastic to come from such a difficult weekend and get a great win and I’m very thankful to all my team”.

Continue reading: The King of the Laguna Seca GP with his crown princes

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It was a pretty honest race for the Ducati factory team, nothing more or less that we expected from Nicky Hayden and Valentino Rossi at Laguna Seca, considering their ongoing struggles with the GP11 and GP11.1, but when the Brno GP rolls around next month. Ducati is again bringing in more stuff for the two to test, to try to help them reach the pointy end (rumors of another chassis in the works have surfaced), even if it’s late in the season.

If anyone was wondering what happened in the Ducati garage post race, when Rossi was trying to give his team mate a hug and Hayden ended up shaking his head, apparently The Kentucky Kid told his team mate that he could have backed off a little since it was his home race, with The Doctor replying that next time they’ll agree on it beforehand. Hayden was asked the same question on his Twitter page and he replied, “Nothing we was joking bout at Indy he gotta let me thru.”

Valentino Rossi said, “We worked well this weekend. We started from a better position than we have in recent races, and I got a good launch on the start and tried to stay with the leaders. I did a lap in the mid-’22s, but then I closed the front twice in a row on the bumps in Turn 5 and nearly crashed. I still had a tough race after that, because Nicky stayed glued to me and didn’t give me a chance to breathe. We obviously don’t want to be fighting for sixth place, but we’re having some problems at the moment and we have to try and do our best with what we have. We’re losing too much on corner entry, where I’m very slow because I don’t have enough feeling, but Ducati is working and we must stay focused and positive, making progress step by step. In the short term, we have to make up those missing tenths in order to stay with the group with Spies, Sic and Dovizioso. Then we’ll think about the others.”

“I’ve won this race before, so I’m not going to jump up and down celebrating seventh place”, said Hayden. “We knew it was going to be tough, and crashing in qualifying didn’t help. I got a decent start, but I didn’t get to go with that second group like I had hoped. It was kind of like the Sachsenring: a good battle with Valentino, but thirty seconds behind the front. Vale was no faster than me, but he’s a racer: he doesn’t make mistakes and give you anything. A couple of times I thought I might be able to go up the inside, but I’m not just going to close my eyes and knock us both down trying for sixth place. People who think he’s not trying are crazy. I saw his right foot come off the peg a couple of times when he almost went down. We’ll take two weeks off, regroup and go to Brno. Now is no time to be negative. I believe in my team and Ducati, and I really think we’re still going to have a good season.”

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Casey Stoner took his fifth victory of the season at Laguna Seca today after defeating Jorge Lorenzo who was tipped to win the USGP, even after his highside crash in qualifying.

Lorenzo who was injected with an anaesthetic earlier this morning to help kill the pain in his leg and hip, lead the race from the start with Dani Pedrosa hot on his tail for the first fourteen laps, but the Repsol Honda rider started to fade with loss of strength in his arm, and team mate Stoner who administered his race for the first half started his chase of the two front runners and on the 17th lap passed the Spaniard with an extraordinary overtake as the two went into the Corkscrew.

Stoner then set his sights on Lorenzo with a series of laps under the 1.22s, as Lorenzo began to defend his position and lines from the Australian, but on lap 26, Stoner at the end of the straight did a por fuera on the Spaniard, passing on the outside, and running away and Lorenzo who had no longer any strength, settled into second and accepting the precious 20 points for second place

Continue reading: Casey Stoner defeats Jorge Lorenzo at Laguna Seca

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This morning’s warm-up practice at a very cool Laguna Seca saw only 17 riders take to track, as Randy de Puniet has wisely withdrawn from this afternoon’s race due to fractures (vertebra and pelvis) sustained in Saturday’s qualifying session.

The 20 minute session saw Casey Stoner finish on top and lay down a 1.21.747, which allowed him to finish first and clear of a limping Jorge Lorenzo and Andrea Dovizioso by 0.248s. Lorenzo and Dovizioso posted the the exact lap time.

Ben Spies was very close behind the Spaniard and Italian, just a mere 0.023s, followed by Marco Simoncelli and the two factory Ducatis with Nicky Hayden and Valentino Rossi (0.951s). Dani Pedrosa was only eighth, with Cal Crutchlow and Alvaro Bautista closing out the top ten.

Continue reading: MotoGP Laguna Seca: Casey Stoner super fast in warm-up

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Check out the video (before you know who finds it) of Jorge Lorenzo’s horrific looking highside at Laguna Seca during FP3, but three hours after this crash and downing a couple of painkillers, he stormed to pole position.

The reigning World Champion immediately after the incident said he was puzzled by his accident as he wasn’t travelling at high speed and wanted to see the video of how it happened, but he just should have looked at the data from his onboard computer because the Spaniard just simply forgot to downshift at the corner.

Lorenzo had disengaged the traction control system to practice a start, with launch control taking over, however to remove launch control the rider has to downshift so TC can kick back in automatically, not doing it got him spat off the bike.

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If yesterday’s MotoGP qualifying session at Laguna Seca was any indication on how todays’s race will go, it will be an affair between Yamaha vs Honda and two Spaniards, with Sachsenring winner Dani Pedrosa trying to stop Jorge Lorenzo from adding to Yamaha’s 50th anniversary celebration after Ben Spies’ win at Assen.

Lorenzo has the burning and clockwork race pace, even after his massive highside in FP3 (he forgot to downshift after disengaging his TC for a practice start) and Pedrosa was the only one to match him, however he was less consistent in running the same times; but the Repsol Honda rider is known for pulling out one or two surprises from his RC212V on a race day. Points leader Casey Stoner will have to ride like a scalded cat to stay with these two, if he doesn’t find those 1-2 tenths he’s missing while managing to keep his tires intact for 32 laps.

We know who won’t be pulling out of his hat another epic Laguna Seca battle, and that’s Valentino Rossi. The Italian was convinced by crew chief Jeremy Burgess to stick to the GP11.1 and despite qualifying 7th, Rossi can’t string 1.22 laps together even if his 15 million euro paycheck depended on it.

Rider quotes after qualifying.

Continue reading: MotoGP riders on qualifying at Laguna Seca

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Pramac Ducati’s garage will look like a clinic for the walking wounded when they start warm-up practice at Laguna Seca.

Randy de Puniet who has had a horrid season so far with the Ducati GP11 (he’s finished 4 races out of 9), suffered an early session qualifying crash at turn 5 and despite getting up and limping away from the incident it was immediately suspected that he had sustained some sort of fracture and follow up tests have unfortunately confirmed it.

The French rider has been diagnosed with a fracture of the transverse process at L3 and L4 on the right side and and has a suspected fracture of the pelvis on the right side, and despite these injuries, he has been given permission to try to test out his fitness during warm-up practice and then he’ll decide if he can hold up for the long 32 lap race.

Continue reading: Randy de Puniet suffers vertebrae fracture - will try to ride at Laguna Seca

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Track temperatures were much higher for this afternoon’s 60 minute exciting qualifying session at Laguna Seca and the pole position went to the Martillo, Jorge Lorenzo.

Lorenzo who picked up some bruising to his right hip after his highside crash in FP3, did some physiotherapy and took a painkiller and sat back on his M1 and hammered out fast laps almost immediately. The Yamaha rider took the pole position with a blazing 1.21.202 lap, but Casey Stoner, who is not at all satisfied with the perfomance of his Honda so far, did a do or die final lap and caught up to him, and was a mere 0.072s adrift. Completing the front row will be the recovering Dani Pedrosa, with the other factory Repsol Honda.

The second row will see Ben Spies, who held the provisional pole briefly but a highspeed crash at the Andretti Hairpin with five minutes to go, didn’t allow him enough time to better his position. Next to the Yamaha rider will be two Honda riders and Italians, Marco Simoncelli and Andrea Dovizioso.

Continue reading: Jorge Lorenzo hammers out the pole position at Laguna Seca

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