América receives MotoGP enthusiastically in Laguna Seca.
Absolute prominence of the Repsol Honda Team riders in this first day with local rider Hayden fastest and Biaggi third.
The World Championship is back in the United States after ten years of absence, however only with the MotoGP riders. The lower 125cc and 250cc classes will have to wait for the moment. The arrival of MotoGP on Californian grounds aroused a lot of excitement, a fact proven by the huge traffic jams around the Laguna Seca circuit throughout the day. In order to give a major start to this first day of the US Grand Prix, the first of today’s two free sessions was expanded to one hour and 50 minutes, divided into two series of 55 minutes each.Nicky Hayden, local hero and winner of the National AMA Superbike Championship in 2002, was the great dominator of the first practice day. Second in the morning behind a highly active Troy Bayliss, Hayden did not leave any options to any of his rivals taking the lead halfway the session and not leaving it until the end. His teammate Max Biaggi, eighth fastest in the morning session on a circuit he had already raced on in 1994, in the 250cc class, did not have a good start in the afternoon’s second free practice session.
Just when his teammate had clocked the fastest time, Max’s bike suffered a mechanical problem that forced the Italian to leave the bike parked at the track side and go back to his garage to take the second bike. Once the incident had been overcome, Max kept on working together with his team on the settings of his bike, managing to move up to third shortly before the end of the session, thus rounding off a perfect day for the Repsol Honda Team, with their two drivers among the top three. Second fastest was Troy Bayliss, who showed himself highly competitive on the North American track on this first day.
Repsol rider´s comments:
Nicky Hayden
First Free Practice 2nd, 1’24.639 sec, 51 laps
Second Free Practice 1st, 1’24.228 sec, 31 laps
‘It’s nice to be fastest here at home – a real good feeling. It’s started out great. The bike is working well and we have all made a pretty good guess from the start with all the settings – a good job from the team. We got some good Michelins that worked real well. Laguna is about how I remember it even though I haven’t been here for three years. It does seem a little smaller for a GP bike though and the straight that I remembered that seemed real long seems a little shorter now. I’m just really enjoying myself here – hanging with my brothers and mixin’ it with my people. It’s real nice!’
Max Biaggi
First Free Practice 8th, 1’25.193 sec, 54 laps
Second Free Practice 3rd, 1’24.542 sec, 31 laps
‘The third best time of the day is satisfying for me. HRC Team did a very good job. Of course we can do much better, like all the others, because this track for us is completely new and full of secrets. The 1994 experience for me is a very far memory and today’s bikes have nothing in common with the old two strokes. Anyhow Laguna Seca must be accepted for what it is: we are in the USA and we cannot pretend a European track . The circuit is surely exciting, with its up and downs and several blind points, where you don’t see where you are putting your wheels. In this kind of track you’ve got to ride very clean and for this reason we are trying to make the bike as smooth as possible.
