#like casey prop went crazyyyy i love her. 'one of the most intimidating displays of pure unadultered speed'

[batsplat]

Looking ahead to this Sunday’s American GP at Laguna Seca, where Rossi has never won in three previous attempts, the Fiat Yamaha rider told MCN: “In the last races Casey has done a great job and he is very fast and now we have to stay concentrated. “But our situation is a lot more positive than last year. It’s always difficult when you have to follow and you have to race sometimes with not enough speed, but a difficult period for my career was last year. Now I have fun and I like to ride the bike, and in the team we have a good atmosphere to make the best and we hope it is enough. “But the championship is long, and we saw at the start of the season that the Ducati was slower than us. Now it is faster so it is possible to work and to bridge the gap to fight with Stoner and with (Dani) Pedrosa to the last race. Now we suffer a little bit but we have the potential to come back to the top.” Rossi said it was vital he stopped Stoner’s revival, as Laguna is the first in a sequence of three races where Stoner dominated in 2007. Brno and Misano follow Sunday’s 32-lap Laguna Seca showdown and Rossi added: “This moment of the season is difficult for us because we go to three tracks where Stoner last year made some great races, so this is a tough part of the season. But we have a good advantage in the points and quite good speed.”

Valentino Rossi looking to end Casey Stoner's revival

Casey Stoner proved last year that [taming the Ducati] can be done, in emphatic fashion. The Australian ran away with the race last year, Laguna Seca proving a vital stepping stone on his way to the world title. With Stoner's current resurgent form, and with so little time between races for the other teams to respond to his improvement, it would be a foolish person who would bet against a repeat of last year's dominance. Based on the evidence of the past few races, we should know whether Stoner will be stomping all over the competition by about the 4th lap of the 1st session of free practice. At previous tracks, that's how long it's taken Stoner to be on, or over, record pace. If he's that fast on Friday, the race could effectively already be over. The man most capable of preventing that will be under a lot of pressure at Laguna Seca. Valentino Rossi started the season slowly, but by the time he'd won his third race of the season in Mugello, it looked like he could be romping to another triumphant title. Since Barcelona, Stoner has come back with a vengeance, with Rossi so far powerless to respond and forced to settle for 2nd place. Add to this the fact that Laguna Seca is a track where The Doctor has yet to win, and has never been particularly happy at, and you start to see the scale of the challenge ahead of him. Rossi's 5 premier class titles say that this is the sort of challenge that Rossi can handle, but it makes it no less formidable.

2008 Laguna Seca Preview - No Rest

The first session of free practice was very much business as usual at Laguna Seca. Casey Stoner was quickest, though it took him 6 laps to be the fastest man on track this morning, rather than his usual 3. Stoner was running low to mid 1'22s with ease, until he started hitting 1'21s. As a reference: That's nearly 4/10ths of a second faster than the existing pole record, set by Casey Stoner last year at Laguna. Valentino Rossi was the only man who managed to get close, though every time he got anywhere near, Stoner went back out and took another couple of tenths off his best time, opening the gap up to over a second, before Rossi closed it back down again. Chris Vermeulen's form shows that he is still very good here at Laguna Seca, and will be a factor in the race on Sunday.

2008 Laguna Seca FP1 Times Day 1 - Stoner Smashes Pole Record As Usual

Conditions may have been different, but the outcome was exactly the same. Once again, Casey Stoner thoroughly dominated qualifying practice, leading by at least half a second for almost all of the session. He saved the last to best, taking another 0.1 of a second off his track record, set in the morning. Stoner is now 0.466 faster than his own pole record, set in 2007. But he's not just quick for a single lap. Stoner was running constantly in the low 1'22s, about half a second quicker than the next fastest lapper, Valentino Rossi, who was running consistent high 1'22s. At this rate, there's going to be a fantastic battle for 2nd place.

2008 Laguna Seca FP2 Times Day 1 - Stoner Smashes Pole Record Again

1.

Bridgestone, on the other hand, are doing just fine. In every session so far, Casey Stoner took the fastest lap within 5 or 6 laps, and never relinquished the spot at the top of the timesheets. And qualifying practice was no different. On his 4th lap out of the pits, and his 3rd flying lap, Stoner was already under last year's pole record, and was just getting warmed up. After a brief sojourn to the pits, Stoner was back out, and flying. This time, it took him 2 flying laps to smash the pole record, although whether "smash" is a strong enough word to describe taking 7/10ths of a second off last year's pole time is questionable. But if anyone thought that lap was something special, the Australian set them straight. In one of the most intimidating displays of pure, unadulterated speed, Casey Stoner set a run of 7 straight laps of low to mid 1'21 seconds, keeping most of the field well over a second behind him. This was just working at race setup. Stoner wasn't even thinking of taking a qualifying tire yet, and the paddock held its breath at the thought of what would happen once Stoner put soft rubber on his Ducati. It was pretty clear that the battle in qualifying would be the same as the battle in the race. It was just a fight for 2nd place, the pole sitter and race winner - barring the arrival of the four horsemen of the apocalypse - already set in stone. Valentino Rossi was the obvious candidate for the runner-up spot, and was quick right off the mark, but sadly for Rossi, only Greatest-Of-All-Time-quick, not Stoner-quick. Rossi's string of laps chasing a race setup was in itself deeply impressive. A run of 17 laps, 12 of which were low to mid 1'22s. Rossi clearly had race pace, but the question was, would he be able to improve on the mediocre qualifying positions he's had recently.

2.

Nicky Hayden looked like taking the 2nd place on the grid, setting a lap of 1'21.430, but the American lost out to Valentino Rossi in the dying seconds of the session, the Italian setting a blistering lap of 1'21.147. Rossi is clearly very fast at Laguna, but his times tend to pale a little when held up against Stoner's.

3.

This is Casey Stoner's 5th pole in a row, and coming off 3 wins in a row, it's hard to see how he can be stopped from taking his 4th straight win. Valentino Rossi's only hope is that he can get in Stoner's way early in the race, and hope the Australian makes a mistake. At least Rossi is in with a chance of being able to get close to Stoner, starting on the front row.

2008 Laguna Seca QP Report

The Aussie said: “I’ve always kind of enjoyed this track since the first year I came here. We were quite fast straight out of the box in 2006 and you know I’ve always got along with this track quite well. I think because it’s quite different. “It’s not your average kind of circuit. With the ups and down and the bumps and it’s quite a slippery circuit, so it tends to suit my style a little more. “I’m just really happy with the way the whole weekend’s gone. We’ve slowly but surely improved our set-up as the weekend’s gone on and we’ve got to a point now where we’re very happy. We’re confident going into the race.”

Casey Stoner confident of Laguna repeat

Fiat Yamaha rider Rossi though was happy to be on the front row in second place and he said: “For sure it will be very important to make a good start, because now we are on the first row, so it is a good point and a good place to start. “We have to have a good start and after we see what happens, because we have a quite good pace, I’m quite fast but it’s a long race, very difficult for the tyres and also for many riders because this track doesn’t have any moment to relax. “I’m pleased with this result and I think we’ve done a good job today. This morning, even though it was very cold, we were able to make some good steps forward, especially with the suspension setting, and I was able to be quite fast. This afternoon we were able to do a long simulation and this was very important to help us understand how the tyres will be tomorrow. Second place is good for us and I think we’ve done a lot better in the practice this weekend than we have in the last couple of races, so I’m happy about this. “Casey is very fast and I don’t know exactly how to beat him – maybe I need to start 30 seconds earlier! Whatever happens a good start is going to be very important and then I will just try to stay with him and keep pushing.” Rossi has never won at Laguna Seca and he said the target will be to better his previous best result of third back in 2005. He added: “It is not one of my favourite tracks, but when the setting and the tyres work it is a lot more easy compared to the past. And I try to improve my best result, which was third from the first year. I think this year we have the potential to make a good race.”

Valentino Rossi happy to be on front row at Laguna Seca