Factory Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo has marmalised the Mugello MotoGP outright lap record on his way to top spot in the final free practice session this morning but was kept honest by fellow Spaniard Dani Pedrosa, whose last lap brought him to within a tenth of the Majorcan's time.
Lorenzo put in a 1'47.584 on his sixth lap of 19 but had already gone under the circuit best lap record of 1'48.034 set by Casey Stoner last year three laps earlier with a 1'47.764. He was also almost a second faster this his own race lap record and was the only rider to big numbers of laps in the 1'47s bracket, which is ominous for tomorrow.
Pedrosa, though, was also on top form, setting his lap on the harder of the Bridgestone tyres while team-mate Casey Stoner, also on the hards, was a little under three seconds off Lorenzo's pace on a 1'47.873. Ben Spies, on the second factory Yamaha, pushed into fourth with his final run, lapping at 1'47.876.
Andrea Dovizioso was the last man inside the old best lap but was pushed hard by team-mate Cal Crutchlow. The pair were both on 1'48 flat pace with Dovi lapping at 1'48.028 and Crutchlow four one-hundredths further back. Nicky Hayden was once again the top Ducati in seventh and is only six-tenths slower than Lorenzo.
Hector Barbera is taking full advantage of his top-speed advantage, posting the eighth fastest time and keeping Stefan Bradl behind him. Valentino Rossi continued to work on setup with the hard tyre and was 10th, some 1.1s off the pace.
Aliex Espargaro was top of the CRT tree in 11th and ahead of San Carlo Honda's Alvaro Bautista, who went through his third set of bodywork in two days, walking away from another front-end crash. Randy De Puniet posted the second-quickest CRT time but is half-a-second slower than his team-mate. Ivan Silva was third fastest.
Britain's James Ellison took 19th spot while Colin Edwards was last. The Texan was evaluating a new frame brought in by Suter in a last-ditch attempt to stop the NGM Forward team switching to an FTR-Honda combo that Edwards is due to test on Monday.
