Lorenzo fastest in Mugello practice

Rossi, who is chasing an eighth straight victory at Mugello, looked set to dominate the afternoon as he threw in an early 1m50.573s lap to put himself over a second clear of the field.

But Ducati's Casey Stoner edged ever closer during his first run, getting within 0.001 seconds of Rossi's pace and then beating it by 0.048s next time around.

Both were then usurped by Lorenzo's 1m50.442s lap as the session hit the halfway mark, before Rossi reasserted himself with a lap of 1m50.065s.

Lorenzo was not finished yet, though, and on his last run he beat his illustrious Yamaha team-mate by a relatively comfortable 0.195s.

Casey held on to third, ahead of Honda's Dani Pedrosa and Tech 3 Yamaha's Colin Edwards.

Alex de Angelis started Gresini Honda's promised upsurge on home ground with a promising sixth place, although his team-mate Toni Elias fell from an early top ten spot to 12th.

Loris Capirossi (Suzuki), Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) and Marco Melandri (Hayate Kawasaki) made it four home riders in the top ten, with Frenchman Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda) getting among them in eighth.

Again Stoner was by far the best of the Ducati riders. Despite Nicky Hayden's desire to improve on his team's home track, he was only 15th, behind Pramac rider Niccolo Canepa, who had a fall at the first corner.

Mika Kallio was slowest of all on the second Pramac bike, while the Hernando team is missing this race while Sete Gibernau recovers from his latest collarbone injury.

Pos  Rider             Bike             Time       Gap
 1.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha           1m49.870s
 2.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha           1m50.065s  + 0.195s
 3.  Casey Stoner      Ducati           1m50.144s  + 0.274s
 4.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda            1m50.808s  + 0.938s
 5.  Colin Edwards     Tech 3 Yamaha    1m50.891s  + 1.021s
 6.  Alex de Angelis   Gresini Honda    1m50.898s  + 1.028s
 7.  Loris Capirossi   Suzuki           1m51.007s  + 1.137s
 8.  Randy de Puniet   LCR Honda        1m51.030s  + 1.160s
 9.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda            1m51.236s  + 1.366s
10.  Marco Melandri    Hayate Kawasaki  1m51.359s  + 1.489s
11.  James Toseland    Tech 3 Yamaha    1m51.401s  + 1.531s
12.  Toni Elias        Gresini Honda    1m51.823s  + 1.953s
13.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki           1m52.171s  + 2.301s
14.  Niccolo Canepa    Pramac Ducati    1m52.319s  + 2.449s
15.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati           1m52.403s  + 2.533s
16.  Yuki Takahashi    Scot Honda       1m52.607s  + 2.737s
17.  Mika Kallio       Pramac Ducati    1m52.619s  + 2.749s