Stoner and Pedrosa on Front Row at Laguna Seca

Repsol Honda riders Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa will start from the front row for Sunday’s U.S. Grand Prix after a drama-filled qualifying session on the challenging Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca circuit in the hills east of Monterey, California not far from the Pacific Ocean.

Stoner wasn’t comfortable during the session, trying a number of fixes that he hoped would yield the right set-up. He had a number of near crashes, but persevered to the end. Despite problems with traffic with his first soft tyre, he rebounded with his second one and nearly stole the pole position from Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) with his final lap of the undulating 3.610k road course, before coming up short by a scant.072s. Pedrosa was only .111s from Stoner in third.

The front row starting spot was Stoner’s ninth in ten races this season; his only second row start came in Estoril where he was fourth. Pedrosa was on the front row for the second week in a row. Last weekend in Germany the Spaniard won his second race of the season after starting second on the grid at the Sachsenring.

With its many left hand corners, Pedrosa was hopeful the track wouldn’t be too taxing on his right collarbone. But Laguna Seca is the most physically demanding track on the calendar and there’s nowhere to rest. Plus, the race is 32 laps, the most of any race all season.

With its many left hand corners, Pedrosa was hopeful the track wouldn’t be too taxing on his right collarbone. But Laguna Seca is the most physically demanding track on the calendar and there’s nowhere to rest. Plus, the race is 32 laps, the most of any race all season.

The qualifying session was filled with drama, including a number of crashes, and some of the usual shuffling at the end of the hour. Fortunately, none of the seven Honda riders fell and all got quicker throughout the one hour session, held on a warm, sunny afternoon.

Lorenzo moved to the top in the very early minutes and only vacated the position temporarily to his team-mate Ben Spies late in the hour. Pedrosa was an early second and Stoner an early third, with San Carlo Honda Gresini rider Marco Simoncelli fourth at the outset.

For much of the hour there was drama, but not much changed at the top. Four riders fell, but none were seriously hurt.

As always, it was late in the session when the riders began fitting the softer of the two Bridgestone rear tyres that the times began to plummet.

Lorenzo re-took the top spot from teammate Ben Spies with just over 11 minutes to run. Spies was second when he crashed on the brakes in the turn three, one of only four right hand corners to go with seven lefts. It wouldn’t be long before the Honda riders took advantage.

Pedrosa moved up to second with just over a minute to go and with 15 seconds remaining Stoner moved up to fourth. But he wasn’t done. On his next and final lap Stoner lapped in 1, 21.274s to nearly take his seventh pole of the season and what would have been his third in a row. Instead he’s second on the grid in front of teammate Pedrosa, who had .193s on the sidelined Spies.