It appears that any teams running Michelins this weekend can give up any hope of scoring a podium finish. Apparently Michelin have severely stuffed up their tyre selections and have brought the completely wrong compounds to Laguna Seca for the conditions.
They have brought a range of hard compound tyres expecting heatwave conditions like 2006, but the actual conditions are quite cool. As a result it is taking 10 to 15 laps to get sufficient heat into the tyres to start to turn competative lap times.
The situation is so bad that hayden and several other teams went out in FP2 on intermediate or cut slick tyres in an attempt to generate some heat into the tyres.
Story here
And here
It's hard to believe that in such a professional series a major tyre company could get it so wrong. Shades of the F1 debacle at Indianapolis a few years ago.