MotoGP teams and riders fly to the west for the first North American stop of the season, at Laguna Seca in California. With Spanish duo Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa leading the championship and Valentino Rossi back in action after six weeks out through injury, motorsports fan are surely looking forward to a feisty encounter on one of the most challenging circuit in the MotoGP calendar.
Barcelona-based Lorenzo has won five races this season and came second in the remaining three so he arrives in the States as the man everyone wants to beat, with a 47-point lead over Pedrosa in the championship. On route to Monterey, Lorenzo and Tech 3 Yamaha colleague Ben Spies will make a stop at the home of American talk-show host Jay Leno, where they will be shown round the star’s world-famous garage, which houses a incredible collection of over 200 cars and motorcycles.
When he broke his leg just a little over six weeks ago it was not expected that nine-time World Champion Valentino Rossi would be seen on track before Brno at the earliest, but the irrepressible superstar has surprised everyone yet again with a return to racing last weekend and a competitive one at that, missing out on a podium by just two tenths of a second. While not yet back to his best the Italian hopes to be stronger again this weekend and feels ready to face the demands of the spectacular circuit.
Laguna Seca sits on the side of a hill just outside the coastal town of Monterey, a couple of hours south of San Francisco. The sometimes intense dry heat, unpredictable asphalt and anti-clockwise layout provides a break from the norm and the riders are forced to adapt their style somewhat after a summer on the fast and wide European tracks. The track boasts some of the most spectacular elevation changes and dramatic corners on the world championship circuit, the most notorious of which is the infamous ‘corkscrew.’
Photo : Fiat Yamaha Team
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