Jorge Lorenzo sets stunning Mugello practice pace for Yamaha

Although Lorenzo was only fourth quickest in Friday's only dry session, he was optimistic that his Yamaha could be a match for the Hondas on pure pace in Italy.

He proved that in a session-long battle with Gresini Honda's Marco Simoncelli this morning. Going into the final two minutes, Lorenzo had put himself back on top, but was beaten by Simoncelli's 1m48.411s.

Lorenzo then responded with a remarkable 1m48.080s - quicker even than the best qualifying laps of the tyre war days - to take first place back by 0.331 seconds. He followed it up with a 1m48.2s to emphasise the Yamaha's pace.

Honda's Casey Stoner intruded on Lorenzo and Simoncelli's fight to lead the session for a while before ending up third - the points leader 0.7s down on Lorenzo.

Assen winner Ben Spies was fourth on the second works Yamaha, ahead of Tech 3 Yamaha man Colin Edwards, Honda's Andrea Dovizioso and Ducati team-mates Nicky Hayden and Valentino Rossi. Randy de Puniet took an encouraging ninth on the sole Pramac Ducati in action this weekend.

Dani Pedrosa was back in 12th as he continued to play himself back in following his injury absence.

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike       Time       Gap
 1.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha          1m48.080s
 2.  Marco Simoncelli  Gresini Honda   1m48.411s  + 0.331s
 3.  Casey Stoner      Honda           1m48.734s  + 0.654s
 4.  Ben Spies         Yamaha          1m49.072s  + 0.992s
 5.  Colin Edwards     Tech 3 Yamaha   1m49.078s  + 0.998s
 6.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda           1m49.132s  + 1.052s
 7.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati          1m49.756s  + 1.676s
 8.  Valentino Rossi   Ducati          1m49.889s  + 1.809s
 9.  Randy de Puniet   Pramac Ducati   1m49.985s  + 1.905s
10.  Alvaro Bautista   Suzuki          1m49.994s  + 1.914s
11.  Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha   1m50.002s  + 1.922s
12.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda           1m50.296s  + 2.216s
13.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Gresini Honda   1m50.440s  + 2.360s
14.  Karel Abraham     Cardion Ducati  1m50.859s  + 2.779s
15.  Toni Elias        LCR Honda       1m51.043s  + 2.963s
16.  Hector Barbera    Aspar Ducati    1m51.145s  + 3.065s