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Jorge Lorenzo fastest in opening practice session at Assen

Yamaha's world championship leader Jorge Lorenzo beat the Hondas to the fastest time in the opening MotoGP free practice session for the Dutch TT at Assen

Honda's Casey Stoner had dominated most of the morning's practice, setting an early 1m35.465s lap that left the rest squabbling over second - a position held in turn by Lorenzo, the Tech 3 Yamaha of Andrea Dovizioso, Stoner's team-mate Dani Pedrosa, Gresini Honda rider Alvaro Bautista, 2011 Assen winner Ben Spies (Yamaha) and then Lorenzo again.

The championship leader closed to within 0.085 seconds of the world champion, only for the Australian to improve to a 1m35.181s and reopen a 0.369s cushion.

But on Lorenzo's final run he first got Stoner's advantage down to 0.032s then threw in a 1m35.106s lap to grab practice one honours.

Pedrosa then squeezed in between Lorenzo and Stoner with a lap 0.026s off the pace, as just 0.075s covered the top three.

Spies ended up fourth, followed by the leading Ducati of Nicky Hayden, Bautista, Pramac Ducati's Hector Barbera, Tech 3 duo Dovizioso and Cal Crutchlow, and the second works Ducati of Valentino Rossi in 10th.

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike                 Time       Gap
 1.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha                    1m35.206s  
 2.  Daniel Pedrosa    Honda                     1m35.126s  + 0.020s
 3.  Casey Stoner      Honda                     1m35.181s  + 0.075s
 4.  Ben Spies         Yamaha                    1m35.555s  + 0.449s
 5.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati                    1m35.841s  + 0.735s
 6.  Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda             1m35.867s  + 0.761s
 7.  Hector Barbera    Pramac Ducati             1m35.970s  + 0.864s
 8.  Andrea Dovizioso  Tech 3 Yamaha             1m35.995s  + 0.889s
 9.  Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha             1m36.031s  + 0.925s
10.  Valentino Rossi   Ducati                    1m36.084s  + 0.978s
11.  Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda                 1m36.737s  + 1.631s
12.  Randy de Puniet   Aspar Aprilia             1m37.187s  + 2.081s
13.  Aleix Espargaro   Aspar Aprilia             1m37.365s  + 2.259s
14.  Michele Pirro     Gresini FTR-Honda         1m37.771s  + 2.665s
15.  Karel Abraham     Cardion Ducati            1m37.850s  + 2.774s
16.  Mattia Pasini     Speed Master Aprilia      1m38.642s  + 3.536s
17.  Yonni Hernandez   Avintia FTR-Kawasaki      1m38.649s  + 3.543s
18.  Colin Edwards     Forward Suter-BMW         1m39.076s  + 3.970s
19.  Danilo Petrucci   Ioda-Aprilia              1m39.385s  + 4.279s
20.  James Ellison     Paul Bird Aprilia         1m39.495s  + 4.389s
21.  Ivan Silva        Avintia Inmotec-Kawasaki  1m39.530s  + 4.424s

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