Laguna Secas twists and turns favour Lorenzo

Championship leader Jorge Lorenzo is worth backing to win the US MotoGP at Laguna Seca as the second half of the season gets under way at the California circuit.

Bookmakers are betting around 6-5 Lorenzo, 5-2 Casey Stoner, 4-1 Dani Pedrosa and 33-1 bar for the 10th race of the year, with Lorenzo sitting on five victories, Stoner on three and Pedrosa on one. The big three are dominating the series, with Andrea Dovizioso the best of the rest in fourth.

Lorenzo, Stoner and Pedrosa have shared the US MotoGP honours over the last three seasons - Lorenzo won in 2010, Stoner won in 2011 and Pedrosa won in 2009 - but the results of this year`s nine races point to the Yamaha rider getting the better of his Australian rival and Spanish compatriot.

Only once this season has Lorenzo not placed either first or second in a MotoGP race and that was when he was involved in a collision on the third lap of the Dutch contest. Five firsts and three seconds is a very impressive record, one that neither Stoner nor Pedrosa are close to matching.

What is even more telling are the results based on the characteristics of the tracks. Basically, the pattern has been one of Yamaha dominance on circuits with continual turning and direction changing, with Honda having the edge on layouts whose longer straights enable its superior acceleration and higher top speed to come to the fore.

Laguna Seca is 3,610 metres long, making it the shortest track on the MotoGP calendar and requiring 32 laps to make a race distance of 115 and a half kilometres. It is a mainly left-hand course, with seven lefts and four rights. There is a large elevation change, with a long climb from the sixth turn to the top of the famous Corkscrew, a tricky, steeply descending left-right that is the track`s signature.

The major set-up compromise occurs because of the Corkscrew as teams seek to prevent front suspensions from bottoming in the hard pullout at the bottom of the turn, yet preserve the suppleness required to absorb the circuit`s numerous bumps.

Yamaha has shown itself to be the best motor cycle in the kind of conditions that the MotoGP riders will encounter while racing around Laguna Seca and Lorenzo has shown himself to be superior to Honda stars Stoner and Pedrosa.

Therefore, back Lorenzo to win his sixth race of the year and join Nicky Hayden and Stoner as two-time US MotoGP winners since it became an annual event again in 2005.

Motor cycling punters who enjoy having a punt on the lower classifications should not that the American round includes neither Moto2 nor Moto3 contests. It is not contractually obliged to run a full program. The imminent completion of a new track meeting all standards near Austin in Texas makes it possible that the US MotoGP will soon exit Laguna Seca.

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27/07/2012     © Frixo 2024