Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo has taken charge of the MotoGP free practice timesheet at Catalunya this afternoon, lapping in a blistering 1'42.099 on a soft tyre with Alvaro Bautista and Cal Crutchlow just behind him but the Spaniard's main championship rivals remained out on the harder compound Bridgestone to get more race setup data.
Lorenzo was two-tenths up on Bautista while Crutchlow was a tenth slower than the Honda man, going round in 1'42.447 but Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa were able to take seventh and tenth respectively on the less sticky rubber. The Spaniard lapped at 1'42.870 while reigning champion Stoner put in a 1'43.576, doing 16 laps in the Spanish sunshine.
Valentino Rossi was also out on the hard tyre, with some alternate gear ratios employed for good measure, and although he was 1.4s off Lorenzo's time, he was only four-tenths slower than Stoner and seven-tenths off Pedrosa, which is telling for Sunday's race. Rossi is winning the top-speed war, however, with 209.5mph this morning.
Bitter rivals Andrea Dovizioso and Hector Barbera were fourth and fifth with Ben Spies in sixth but his tyre choice is unknown. The Texan did his fastest time on the 13th of 22 laps, indicating he may have put in a soft tyre early and gone out for some laps on the hard tyre in warmer conditions later.
LCR Honda's Stefan Bradl was eighth with Nicky Hayden ninth. Karel Abraham came in behind Stoner but ahead of Rossi while Aleix Espargaro topped the CRT sheet, just ahead of Randy De Puniet. Colin Edwards was 16th while James Ellison dropped to 20th but is just two seconds down on the Frenchman.
