Factory Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo has deposed Casey Stoner at the top of the MotoGP free practice timesheets, nipping 0.076s ahead of the Australian in this afternoon's second session with Dani Pedrosa a quarter of a second further back in third.
Lorenzo set his fastest lap of 1'33.929 on worn tyres with half an hour left to run and was the only rider to break the 1;34 barrier. Stoner couldn't quite match it but was as close as you can get with a 1'35.005 with Marco Simoncelli a further two-tenths back in fourth.
Marlboro Ducati's Valentino Rossi was second-from-last right until the end of the session, upping his game on the penultimate lap to go 15th before hauling himself into 11th with his last lap, just after the chequered flag came out. He is still 1.5s slower than the top two.
Ben Spies, on the second works M1, didn't improve his laptime significantly but put in a lot of laps in the 1'34s bracket to take fifth place just ahead of Andrea Dovizioso on the last Repsol-painted machine. Rizla Suzuki's Alvaro Bautisa recovered to sixth after a spectacular blow up saw him switch to his second bike early on.
Once again, Hector Barbera was the fastest Ducati finishing in eighth with Hiro Aoyama and Colin Edwards rounding out the top ten. Monster Yamaha's Cal Crutchlow, who has raced here in World Superbike and Supersport, ended the day in 15th place behind Nicky Hayden and Karel Abraham.
