By Lynne Huntting
Ducati Marlboro's reigning
MotoGP world champion
Casey Stoner dominated first free practice for the US Grand Prix at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.
Stoner, winner of the past three races and now 20 points from the title lead, kept turning up the wick, setting his best time of 1min 21.915secs on lap 23 of the 28 he rode. That time is already quicker than his own 2007 pole position lap.
"At the start the track surface was a little cool but grip wasn't bad and after a few laps it was back to a normal level," said Stoner. "It took a few laps to get used to the new bumps that have emerged since last season though.
"In general the track is in good shape and I enjoyed riding because it's a fun layout and we found a good set-up pretty quickly, using the base from last year. That allowed us to improve as the session went on and I think that if it wasn't for a bit of traffic at the end I could have gone even faster.
"For now I'm very satisfied but we have to keep working hard because the temperatures are sure to keep rising in the afternoon and that will have an effect on the track conditions."
Injured
Dani Pedrosa sat at the other end of the charts during the hour long session. He worked his way up from last to eighteenth out of nineteen riders, with a time of 1min 25.311secs, before being eclipsed.
Pedrosa pitted after 12 laps. He then went back out at the end of the session, but he never got faster, and finished the session in last place with 21 laps to his name. Pedrosa walks with a decided limp as a result of his Sachsenring accident, which cost him the world championship lead by 16 points to
Valentino Rossi and left him with a fractured finger and wrist, in addition to a sprained ankle.
Rossi is still working on his target of "trying to improve on my best result" at Laguna Seca, a third place in 2005. He was second in morning practice, setting his fastest lap near the end of the session, but was 0.764secs behind Stoner.
