Laguna Seca will open its gates at the crack of dawn tomorrow as over 60,000 fans descend on the circuit to witness the best motorcycle race series in the world.

 The atmosphere generated at the Californian circuit today has already provided a glimpse of what is to come in the eighth round of the MotoGP World Championship, eleven years on from the last Grand Prix here.

The MotoGP field have made the most of three free practice sessions – with an extra hour compared to other rounds – as they look to gather confidence and information at a track that is not only unknown to the majority of riders, but also extremely demanding from a mental and physical point of view. In sunny but blustery conditions during the afternoon session, the Telefónica Movistar Honda team saw their riders qualify on the fourth and fifth rows of the grid for what will be their first race appearance at Laguna Seca.

Marco Melandri, who escaped unhurt from a crash just ten minutes into the session, qualified eleventh fastest whilst his team-mate Sete Gibernau was unable to get his rhythm together in the decisive session and ended up in thirteenth place, his worst grid position since the Grand Prix of Japan last year.

MARCO MELANDRI (11th, 1’23”905): “They have been two difficult days for me because we haven’t managed to find a good feeling for the bike. After the crash this afternoon we just focused on getting through the practice. Tomorrow will be a tough race and I just want to finish it in the best way possible.”

SETE GIBERNAU (13th, 1’24”145): “We have a lot of work to do in the warm-up tomorrow. We got lost today and we have to find out why because we’ve gone backwards for the first time in a long while. We went faster yesterday than we did at any point today. We’ll have to work very hard in the morning although it’s pretty obvious that it’s going to be a tough race.”

LAP TIMES

1. Nicky Hayden (USA/Honda)           1’22”670
2. Valentino Rossi (Ita/Yamaha)         1’23”024
3. Alex Barros (Bra/Honda)                1’23”312
4. Troy Bayliss (Aus/Honda)              1’23”358
5. Colin Edwards (USA/Yamaha)        1’23”469
...
11. Marco Melandri (Ita/Honda)    1’23”905
13. Sete Gibernau (Esp/Honda)    1’24”145