Advantage Lorenzo in first Estoril session

In good conditions at Estoril, on the opening day of the round 14 weekend, it was Fiat Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo who set the pace in the first MotoGP free practice with a best time of 1’37.185s in the closing stages, after heading the timesheet for most of the session.

Lorenzo needs to pile as much pressure as possible on his Fiat Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi this weekend to stay in the title hunt and the Spanish star will be happy to have started practice in first place, at a venue where he took his first MotoGP win last year.

Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa was the second quickest participant, demonstrating his pace once again with a 1’37.544 time which was 0.359s down on Lorenzo’s hot lap.

Rossi will not be too disappointed to have commenced the Estoril weekend in third place, with a similar time to Pedrosa’s best, 0.421s behind his championship rival Lorenzo - at a circuit where he has scored five premier class wins.

Casey Stoner was back on track after a three round break, taking his beloved Desmosedici GP9 machine round in a best time of 1’37.966 as the fastest Ducati rider on Friday.

Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Colin Edwards was fifth once again, a position he has found himself in on several occasions in 2009, going round in just over 1’38 on the satellite Yamaha M1 which he will ride again next year.

Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda) and Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda) were sixth and seventh respectively, whilst James Toseland (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) made a late surge from lower down the order into eighth place. San Carlo Honda Gresini’s Alex de Angelis and Pramac Racing’s Mika Kallio completed the top ten.

The MotoGP riders will be back on track at 9.55am local time at Estoril on Saturday morning for Free Practice 2.