Factory Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo dominated the opening MotoGP free practice session at Brno this morning and was the only rider to break the 1'57s barrier to finish three-tenths ahead of championship rival Dani Pedrosa.
Lorenzo went round in 1'56.698 with his last lap, which was fractionally faster than his previous best of 1'56.762 but still a long way ahead of Pedrosa's 1'57.041 while Britain's Cal Crutchlow stayed ahead of Marc Marquez for third.
With most of the top men using a hard/soft front/rear tyre combination, Crutchlow was hovering around the top three all session and registered a 1'57.058 to be only 0.017 behind Pedrosa and more than a tenth faster than Valentino Rossi in fifth even though The Doctor tested at Brno two weeks ago.
Marquez is between the Yamaha men on a 1'57.120 so the Czech Republic track isn't a runaway track for the YZR-M1 with a little over half a second covering the top five riders. Alvaro Bautista is in his customary sixth place but nearly four-tenths behind Valentino Rossi on a 1'57.610.
He was shadowed by fellow satellite Honda man Stefan Bradl who was just 0.084s in arrears for seventh while Andrea Dovizioso was the first Ducati home in eighth but 1.2s off Lorenzo's pace.
Bradley Smith, on the second Monster Yamaha, finished just 0.017s behind the Italian and in front of Nicky Hayden on the second GP13. Andrea Iannone and Michele Pirro rounded out the top 12.
Aleix Espargaro was, unsurprinsingly, top CRT but had Hiro Aoyama for company with Colin Edwards in third place and 2.7s off the ultimate pace. Michael Laverty, who is unfamilar with Brno finished in 23rd.