Heavy fog this morning cast doubt over whether the day’s proceedings would begin on time and this morning’s practice session was run in very low temperatures, with Rossi finishing second. Luckily however the Californian sun showed its face this afternoon and the qualifying session was a much warmer affair, with Rossi consistently fast throughout, having found an improved suspension set-up this morning. With six minutes remaining a fast lap with a Bridgestone qualifying tyre put him second, although he temporarily surrendered the spot a few minutes later. Rossi’s final flying lap was even faster however and, although he was unable to catch Stoner, it was good enough for second on the grid.

It was a successful day all round for the Fiat Yamaha Team as Jorge Lorenzo was able to qualify fourth on what is his first ride at the track, whilst Tech 3 riders James Toseland and Colin Edwards were 5th and 7th respectively. Rossi will start in between Stoner and Hayden, two former winners here, when the lights go out at 1400 West Coast time for tomorrow’s 32-lap race.

Valentino Rossi - Position: 2nd Time: 1′21.147 Laps: 38
“I’m pleased with this result and I think we’ve done a good job today. This morning, even though it was very cold, we were able to make some good steps forward, especially with the suspension setting, and I was able to be quite fast. This afternoon we were able to do a long simulation and this was very important to help us understand how the tyres will be tomorrow. It seems they are quite good, but this is a very hard race for tyres! It’s also a hard race physically and so I know that tomorrow will be a big challenge. Second place is good for us and I think we’ve done a lot better in the practice this weekend than we have in the last couple of races, so I’m happy about this. Casey is very fast and I don’t know exactly how to beat him – maybe I need to start 30 seconds earlier! Whatever happens a good start is going to be very important and then I will just try to stay with him and keep pushing.”

Davide Brivio - Team Manager
“It’s good to be starting from the first row and we’re happy because this is our first target for the weekend. Our pace is very good, but of course we will be looking for ways to improve this even further for tomorrow. Unfortunately there is someone who is faster than us, but you never know in racing and we will just try to stay with him and have a race.”

Lorenzo to launch Laguna bid from second row
Jorge Lorenzo will start his debut US Grand Prix from the second row of the grid, having qualified fourth at Laguna Seca today. The Fiat Yamaha Team rookie was able to make significant strides with his set-up today and is now looking forward to his first American challenge tomorrow. The track was shrouded in heavy fog this morning, which only just cleared in time for the first practice to go ahead. Despite the cool temperatures Lorenzo and his crew improved on his time from yesterday by half a second and the Spaniard went into this afternoon’s qualifying with much more confidence. Bright sunshine made it a cheerier affair and Lorenzo was able to put in some fast laps with his Michelin qualifying tyres, his best and final effort putting him fourth, well inside the pole position record of last year.

This is a very happy time in my life, having also moved back home to Italy after several enjoyable years in London. The hard time I spent last summer, which was well documented in the press, is behind me now and I am glad to be back home, near my friends and family. It has helped me focus more whilst at the races and the only thing on my mind this season has been trying to get the most out of the Yamaha and the Bridgestone tyres and getting on the podium at every opportunity.

Unfortunately, I missed the podium for the first time in eight races in the last round at Assen and I don’t say this very often but it was my mistake! At the first left I arrived too fast when the tyres were still cold, I was too hard on the brakes and I lost the rear. I was very disappointed because we had made a change to the set-up of the front and it was working very well - I could tell from the warm-up lap that my bike was ready. I knew I could have been faster than Pedrosa and, although it’s easy to say now, I think I could have fought with Stoner for the win because even after the crash, with a bent handlebar and no gear shifter, I was able to do the third fastest lap time with a 1’37.1! I apologised to Randy de Puniet and all of his team because I am good friends with his team boss Lucio Cecchinello and was sincerely sorry for them but I was also glad that I could recover and score five important points. Even though we lost the lead in the championship we are not far behind Pedrosa and I am looking forward now to some more technical improvements for my bike at the next races.

I had a good run of results before Assen, including the highlight of the season so far – victory in my home round at Mugello. Apart from winning the championship, winning at Mugello is the next best thing for me and once again it was like a dream. There is no way to describe the feeling I have standing on the podium in front of all of my fans there and I was so happy that I could win for the seventh time! Going into the race I felt quite a lot of pressure so it was also a relief because I didn’t want to disappoint everyone! It was a hard weekend for everybody because of the bad weather and the lack of dry track time, but my crew did a fantastic job with the bike and so did Bridgestone, who gave me a tyre that worked virtually the same from the start of the race to the finish. Bridgestone had never won at Mugello before so I’m really glad that I was the one to give them their first win there – it was an added bonus to an amazing weekend.

I enjoyed watching Euro 2008 and after I got home from Assen I watched the final. I think Spain deserved to win it because they played great football all through the tournament. Now I am looking forward to the new season of Serie A, especially because my favorite team, Inter Milan, has a new manager in Jose Mourinho. He is a very strong character with a great record so I am looking forward to seeing if he can win the Champions League for us, as he did with Porto. It should be an interesting few weeks coming up and I am excited to see which players he buys.

We have two important races coming up in July, at Sachsenring and Laguna Seca, where I expect Dani Pedrosa and especially Casey Stoner to be strong once again. They will both be real tests of how much progress we have made since last season – especially Laguna, where we finished 30 seconds behind Casey last year. Before that I will be going to the Misano World Circuit and Marina di Cattolica for the 11th edition of the Yamaha Fest, which will take place from the 4th to the 6th of July. I am looking forward to this year’s event, which I am told is different to last year because it will centre on four elements that characterize Yamaha: passion, challenge, innovation and reverence. They are four elements that also characterize me! Entrance is free, both in the autodrome and at the Marina di Cattolica and you can also enter the paddock with your own bike, so there will be lots of people there – I hope some of my Japanese fans are amongst them!

Ciao! Vale #46

Second place in Germany, combined with a zero-point score for his closest title rival Dani Pedrosa, has given the Italian a sixteen-point advantage in the chase for the title with eight races remaining, although Sunday’s race winner Casey Stoner lurks just four points further back in third place. Having been absent from the US podium since taking third when MotoGP returned to Laguna Seca in 2005, Rossi’s target is to recreate Yamaha’s success during the track’s first spell on the Grand Prix calendar between 1988 and 1994, when the factory won five of the six premier-class races.

After struggling for confidence over the past four rounds following a run of crashes, Jorge Lorenzo is hoping to bounce back from his latest setback, a third lap spill at the Sachsenring, on his first visit to Laguna Seca as a MotoGP rider. The Mallorcan did attend the USGP last season, however, as an expert for Spanish television, having already fallen in love with California during the previous winter when he went to ride dirt-track under the tutelage of Yamaha legend ‘King’ Kenny Roberts at his Modesto ranch.

That experience could come in handy this weekend at the notoriously capricious circuit, where the intense dry heat, unpredictable asphalt and anti-clockwise layout reward the loose and aggressive riding style perfected in the dust bowls of the west coast. As the rear slides around, the front wheel is often left spinning in thin air through the dramatic elevation changes and fast, sweeping corners – none of them more spectacular than the world-famous ‘Corkscrew’. Machine set-up is relatively straightforward, with throttle connection a much more important factor than top-end power and a well balanced chassis the key to those elevation changes and diverse corners.

Valentino Rossi - Hoping for good memories
“Laguna hasn’t been one of my favourite tracks in the three years since we’ve been going there and it’s one of the only ones on the calendar where I haven’t won. We’re aiming to win this week, that’s for sure! It’s been a hard track for our bike but it’s been a very good track for Bridgestone and I am confident that our package will work very well there. The last two years I’ve had serious disappointments in the race and it’s been one of the low points of both seasons, I hope I have had all the bad luck I’m going to have there and that this year I can enjoy myself! We are going there with the same package that we had in Germany and so we’re going to have to work very hard to close the gap in performance to Stoner; we can’t afford to start from anywhere except the front because, with him in this form, it is then very hard to catch him. California is a great place and this year we will be doing all we can to leave it with good memories, not bad ones!”

Jorge Lorenzo - A famous circuit
“I’ve never raced at Laguna but last year I went there to commentate for Spanish TV and I had a great time, California is an amazing place! I am so excited to finally get the chance to race there because it’s a very special track which everyone always talks about and I am looking forward to riding at a place with such famous corners as the corkscrew. I know it’s a difficult place but I am feeling stronger and I will be doing my best to get to know the circuit as quickly as possible and find a good feeling with the bike there. We need to work hard from that start, together with Michelin, to improve the grip issues we’ve been having. I am still disappointed about Sachsenring but luckily I wasn’t hurt and it’s good to have the chance to move on quickly and focus on the next race. Now my target is to have a good weekend so that I can enjoy the summer break.”

Davide Brivio - A fantastic race
“We’re very happy to go to Laguna leading the championship and feeling quite strong. It’s never been a very successful track for us so we have to try and improve on our third place from 2005, which is our best result. It’s always fantastic to race there because the atmosphere is incredible and it’s a pleasure to race in California. Hopefully we will have some Californian sunshine! We need to go there on the attack and our target is to remain on the podium and maintain our championship lead.”

Daniele Romagnoli - Looking for more grip
“Jorge is still very disappointed with the race in Germany but thankfully he escaped unhurt from the crash. Now we have to focus on working hard at Laguna Seca on the problems he had at the Sachsenring. The issue is a lack of rear grip, which was obviously exacerbated in the wet on Sunday, and at Laguna it will be important again because we’ve seen over the past two seasons how hard this circuit is on the tyres. We won’t be trying anything new with the electronics – our focus is on working with the geometry of the bike and the suspension to find a more comfortable base setting for Jorge. This is a new track for him so he doesn’t have any experience to fall back on, which will make it an interesting weekend for sure!”

Valentino Rossi : Information
Age: 29
Lives: Tavullia, Italy
Bike: Yamaha
GP victories: 91 (65 x MotoGP/500cc, 14 x 250cc, 12 x 125cc)
First GP victory: Czech Republic, 1996 (125cc)
First GP: Malaysia, 1996 (125cc)
GP starts: 202 (142 x MotoGP/500cc, 30 x 250cc, 30 x 125cc)
Pole positions: 50
World Championships: 7 Grand Prix (1 x 125cc, 1 x 250cc, 1 x 500cc, 4 x MotoGP)

Jorge Lorenzo: Information
Age: 21
Lives: London, UK
Bike: Yamaha
GP victories: 22 (1 x MotoGP, 17 x 250cc, 4 x 125cc)
First GP victory: Brazil, 2003 (125cc)
First GP: Jerez, Spain, 2002 (125cc)
GP starts: 103 (9 x MotoGP, 48 x 250cc, 46 x 125cc)
Pole positions: 29 (3 x MotoGP, 23 x 250cc, 3 x 125cc)
World Championships: 2 x 250cc

Laguna Seca: Record Lap
C. Stoner (Ducati) 2007, 1′22.542

Laguna Seca: Best Lap
C. Stoner (Ducati) 2007, 1′21.975

Grand Prix Results: Laguna Seca 2007
1. C.Stoner (Ducati) 44′20.325
2. C.Vermeulen (Suzuki) +9.865
3. M.Melandri (Honda) +25.641
4. V. Rossi (ITA) Yamaha +30.664

Jorge Lorenzo Result: Laguna Seca 2007