Ducati's Casey Stoner has blitzed final qualifying at Laguna Seca this evening, topping the US MotoGP timesheets by a full half a second from Fiat Yamaha's Valentino Rossi. Britain's James Toseland defied the odds and put his Tech 3 Yamaha on the second row.
Stoner has been under the track lap record in all sessions so far, and crucified it today by setting a 1'21.700 second lap – last year's pole was a 1'22.290 set by the young Aussie himself last year. He set the session's quickest time of 1'23.211 after just six minutes and then dropped it to 1'21.515 with 20 minutes gone.
Stoner then sat out the rest of the session after posting a 1'21.374 until there were just eight minutes left. He went out with a qualifier, lapped at 1'21.296 and then became the only man to go under the 1'21 barrier, putting in pole time with three minutes left.
Rizla Suzuki's Chris Vermeulen put in a great lap halfway through the session, probably on a qualifier, to se himself go second with a 1'21.971.
Toseland looked to be struggling for a majority of the session, as was team-mate Colin Edwards. The Yorkshireman languished at the bottom end of the order until there were only 20 minutes remaining, coming up to eighth. Toseland then got stuck into a qualifying Michelin and briefly saw himself promoted to third before Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden popped up in front of him.
With three minutes left, the usual scrum took place with Lorenzo briefly appearing in second before the Rossi and Hayden show dropped him back down to fourth.
Dani Pedrosa did not take part. He has returned home because his injuries were too painfull for him to make any impact on the race.
MotoGP qualifying practice - conditions dry
1 1 Casey STONER AUS Ducati Team Ducati 1'20.700 262.773
2 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Fiat Yamaha Team Yamaha 1'21.147 259.365 0.447
3 69 Nicky HAYDEN USA Repsol Honda Team Honda 1'21.430 256.898 0.730
4 48 Jorge LORENZO SPA Fiat Yamaha Team Yamaha 1'21.636 246.631 0.936
5 52 James TOSELAND GBR Tech 3 Yamaha Yamaha 1'21.848 252.336 1.148
6 14 Randy DE PUNIET FRA LCR Honda MotoGP Honda 1'21.921 251.338 1.221
7 5 Colin EDWARDS USA Tech 3 Yamaha Yamaha 1'21.947 252.749 1.247
8 7 Chris VERMEULEN AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP Suzuki 1'21.971 255.742 1.271
9 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA JiR Team Scot MotoGP Honda 1'21.974 256.471 1.274
10 24 Toni ELIAS SPA Alice Team Ducati 1'21.999 251.865 1.299
11 65 Loris CAPIROSSI ITA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP Suzuki 1'22.039 255.379 1.339
12 56 Shinya NAKANO JPN San Carlo Honda Gresini Honda 1'22.092 249.884 1.392
13 11 Ben SPIES USA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP Suzuki 1'22.127 256.288 1.427
14 50 Sylvain GUINTOLI FRA Alice Team Ducati 1'22.719 257.879 2.019
15 33 Marco MELANDRI ITA Ducati Team Ducati 1'22.957 254.177 2.257
16 15 Alex DE ANGELIS RSM San Carlo Honda Gresini Honda 1'23.035 253.759 2.335
17 12 Jamie HACKING USA Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki 1'23.309 257.142 2.609
18 13 Anthony WEST AUS Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki 1'24.525 252.218 3.825