Factory Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo picked himself up from a massive highside in the third MotoGP free practice session earlier today to bag pole position at Laguna Seca, fending off a late charge from title challenger Casey Stoner with Valentino Rossi getting seventh with his last circulation.
Lorenzo was in the medical centre some three hours ago with a hole in his hip following the crash, apparently caused by his traction control not being on after a practice start, but he came out with all guns blazing to set a 1'21.202 which not even Stoner could match.
Right until the end of the session, it was a Yamaha one-two but Lorenzo's team-mate Ben Spies crashed unhurt with six minutes left and his second place was first usurped by Dani Pedrosa with a 1'21.385 and then Stoner on a 1'21.274.
Marco Simoncelli is off the front row and sits between Spies and the third Repsol bike of Andrea Dovizioso but the Italian without the massive hair is only half-a-second off the pace.
Rossi, however, is a second off the pace in seventh and heads an all-Ducati third row as he is joined by the Mapfre bike of Hector Barbera and Nicky Hayden in ninth. Cal Crutchlow just nipped ahead of team-mate Colin Edwards for tenth after getting blocked on a fast lap for tenth.
Ben Bostrom is still only four seconds off the pace in last but only 1.1s off his team-mate Toni Elias. Josh Hayes' qualifying time on his AMA Superbike is faster...
