Lorenzo tops first Silverstone practice

The championship leader ended the first hour of running 0.142 seconds ahead of Casey Stoner's Ducati.

Stoner had been the early pacesetter, before the impressive Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda) and Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) took turns on top for a while.

Yamaha's sole works rider Lorenzo then moved to the head of the order with 12 minutes to go, improving his time to 2m05.991s on his next lap. Any other gains were prevented when a hard rain shower started two minutes from the end, sending everyone to the pits.

Stoner improved just before then, pushing Dovizioso and de Puniet back to third and fourth, with Ben Spies completing the top five for Tech 3 Yamaha.

Mugello winner Dani Pedrosa was back in sixth on the second works Honda, while Ducati's Nicky Hayden was 10th. Gresini Honda got both riders in the top ten - Marco Melandri and Marco Simoncelli in seventh and ninth, split by Pramac Ducati's Aleix Espargaro.

Pos  Rider             Team               Time       Gap
 1.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha             2m05.991s
 2.  Casey Stoner      Ducati             2m06.133s  + 0.142s
 3.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda              2m06.347s  + 0.356s
 4.  Randy de Puniet   LCR Honda          2m06.439s  + 0.448s
 5.  Ben Spies         Tech 3 Yamaha      2m07.250s  + 1.259s
 6.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda              2m07.586s  + 1.595s
 7.  Marco Melandri    Gresini Honda      2m07.588s  + 1.597s
 8.  Aleix Espargaro   Pramac Ducati      2m07.927s  + 1.936s
 9.  Marco Simoncelli  Gresini Honda      2m07.951s  + 1.960s
10.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati             2m08.300s  + 2.309s
11.  Hector Barbera    Aspar Ducati       2m08.452s  + 2.461s
12.  Colin Edwards     Tech 3 Yamaha      2m08.525s  + 2.534s
13.  Alvaro Bautista   Suzuki             2m08.666s  + 2.675s
14.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Interwetten Honda  2m09.639s  + 3.648s
15.  Loris Capirossi   Suzuki             2m09.805s  + 3.814s
16.  Mika Kallio       Pramac Ducati      2m10.227s  + 4.236s