Valentino Rossi's hopes of repelling
Casey Stoner's title attack before the summer break received a serious blow when the Italian finished day one of the US Grand Prix a worrying 0.8secs behind the Ducati star.
"Once again here we lost some time during the practice trying to find the right setting and we can't afford to keep doing this" - that was the warning issued by Rossi last Sunday in Germany, after Stoner clinched his third victory in succession, but it seems the seven time world champion is now in a similar situation this weekend.
"We started quite well this morning and we were quite fast from the start," explained Rossi, who finished the Friday morning session at Laguna Seca in second place, 0.764secs from Stoner. "We used our standard base setting and it seemed to work quite well here, and I think that in fact I could have gone faster this morning but in my last run my grip wasn't perfect so I slowed down."
But a wrong turn with the set-up saw Rossi become one of only two riders to circulate slower during the afternoon hour, and he was demoted to third position by
Nicky Hayden.
"This morning I was quite happy but this afternoon we tried to modify something in the set-up of the bike, because we're still looking for the ideal configuration for this track, and it wasn't as good as we had hoped," said Valentino.
It now remains to be seen how much time the Fiat Yamaha star, who will start Sunday's race 16 points clear of the injured
Dani Pedrosa and 20 points in front of Stoner, can claw back.
"Now we must put the best things of each session together and then I believe we will be able to be some tenths faster tomorrow," said Rossi. "We have a good potential here and I know we haven't reached it yet; we need to do some work on the suspension but the Bridgestones are good which is encouraging.
"I am looking forward to making more progress tomorrow and closing the gap to Stoner," he reiterated.
Meanwhile, Rossi's Michelin-shod team-mate
Jorge Lorenzo was 13th fastest on his first ever ride at this track.
"The first laps here in Laguna Seca this morning were incredible for me and I had great fun learning the track," said Jorge. "On my first lap I was very lucky at the Corkscrew because Nicky Hayden was in front and he knows this track very well, so I followed him and I came out alive!
