Moto GP ; Stefan Bradl edges out Marquez in warm-up at Laguna Seca

It was sunny this morning at Laguna Seca for the 20 minute warm-up practice and the quickest rider of the session was polesitter Stefan Bradl. The German rider hammered out fast lap after fast lap, to take the top of the timesheets 1.21.743, and edging out Marc Marquez by a mere 0.008s.

Only a highly concentrated Jorge Lorenzo - who looks like he isn’t excluding a podium finish - was able to break the Honda hegemony, concentrating on his race pace and he finished less than one tenth of a second from Bradl and Marquez.

Alvaro Bautista who will be taking off in third on the starting grid, slid off track at turn 5. The Gresini rider was okay, but his Honda a lot less, as it slammed into the air fence, but his lap time before the crash allowed him to take fourth and just ahead of Valentino Rossi, and one tenth of a second faster than Cal Crutchlow who were all more than six tenths adrift.

Taking an impressive 7th was Bradley Smith, ahead of another impressive rider, Aleix Espargaro. The ART rider was faster than both Ducati factory riders Andrea Dovizioso and Nicky Hayden.

Dani Pedrosa didn’t force his pace as he was 11th and more than one second adrift.

2013 MotoGP Laguna Seca warm-up results:

01- Stefan Bradl – LCR Honda MotoGP – Honda RC213V – 1’21.743
02- Marc Marquez – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – + 0.008
03- Jorge Lorenzo – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.091
04- Alvaro Bautista – GO&FUN Honda Gresini – Honda RC213V – + 0.616
05- Valentino Rossi – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.651
06- Cal Crutchlow – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.731
07- Bradley Smith – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.813
08- Aleix Espargaro – Power Electronics Aspar – ART GP13 – + 0.853
09- Andrea Dovizioso – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 0.908
10- Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 0.908

from Twowheelsblog