Lorenzo tops final night of winter testing

Factory Yamaha rider Lorenzo produced a 1:54.552 lap late in the second day of floodlit evening testing at the Losail International Circuit in Qatar, where MotoGP's first ever night race will take place next weekend.

Lorenzo beat early pacesetter James Toseland (Tech 3 Yamaha) by just 0.040 seconds, and lapped 0.9 seconds faster than Casey Stoner had when topping Thursday night's test.

LCR Honda rider Randy de Puniet completed the top three, ahead of Toseland's teammate Colin Edwards.

World champion Stoner ended up fifth after crashing at Turn 2. He escaped without injury, as did Suzuki's Loris Capirossi, who had a substantial accident but was able to get straight back out on track with his spare bike.

Alice Ducati rider Sylvain Guintoli also suffered a crash, sustaining an arm injury in the incident. Despite initial concerns that the arm might be broken, the French rider escaped serious injury and expects to compete in next week's race.

Lorenzo's former 250cc rival Andrea Dovizioso took sixth on the JiR Scot Honda, ahead of Nicky Hayden on the factory Repsol Honda, Suzuki's Chris Vermeulen and Alex de Angelis (Gresini Honda).

Valentino Rossi was 1.7 seconds slower than teammate Lorenzo in 10th position.

Friday's testing times:

Pos  Rider             Bike      Time
 1.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha    1:54.552
 2.  James Toseland    Yamaha    1:54.592
 3.  Randy de Puniet   Honda     1:54.973
 4.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    1:55.464
 5.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    1:55.485
 6.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda     1:55.550
 7.  Nicky Hayden      Honda     1:55.674
 8.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    1:56.119
 9.  Alex de Angelis   Honda     1:56.249
10.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    1:56.256
11.  Loris Capirossi   Suzuki    1:56.450
12.  John Hopkins      Kawasaki  1:56.612
13.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda     1:56.704
14.  Shinya Nakano     Honda     1:56.792
15.  Marco Melandri    Ducati    1:56.902
16.  Toni Elias        Ducati    1:56.986
17.  Sylvain Guintoli  Ducati    1:57.055
18.  Anthony West      Kawasaki  1:57.459