Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa has set the pace during the first MotoGP free practice session at Laguna Seca and is already close to the lap record with championship leader Jorge Lorenzo less than a tenth of a second behind.
Pedrosa went round in 1'21.424, which was less than a tenth outside the lap record, while Lorenzo was very close on 1'21.498. The pair are already within six-tenths of the circuit best lap which might not fall later as the track temperature will soar but will more than likely get broken in the third practice session tomorrow morning.
Pedrosa's team-mate Casey Stoner was third fastest on 1'21.829 and four-tenths in arrears. As is usual, Stoner was fiddling with his gloves early on but was then seen to be doing it on the entry to Rainey Curve with 20 minutes of the session left to go.
After his Tuesday 'I'm off' bombshell, Ben Spies put the second works YZR-M1 in fourth place and only a tenth slower than Stoner while Andrea Dovizioso is the first of the Monster Yamahas in fifth on a 1'22.609. Team-mate Cal Crutchlow is sixth and less than a tenth behind the Italian.
Ducati's Valentino Rossi snuck ahead of Stefan Bradl with his final lap to bag seventh place but is some 1.8s slower than Pedrosa, who makes up an awful lot of time on the run from the Corkscrew to the line, while Nicky Hayden is in ninth ahead of Alvaro Bautista.
Colin Edwards, riding his 'Piece Of Shit', is the fastest of the CRT bikes in 11th and he has Aleix Espargaro right behind him. The returning Karel Abraham is in 13th place, Mattia Pasini 14th and Toni Elias, standing in for The Caravan, rounds out the top 15.
After a bright start, James Ellison ended the day in 17th place while Randy De Puniet is down in 20th and some five seconds off the pace. Last, and by no means least, debutant Steve Rapp, on the Attack Performance CRT, is 8.3s in arrears but no mean feat on tyres he has never seen before.
