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Jorge Lorenzo fastest in MotoGP's Barcelona test as Suzuki returns

Jorge Lorenzo set the pace for Yamaha at a Barcelona test in which Suzuki made an impressive return to the MotoGP fold

Lorenzo, who triumphed at the Spanish track on Sunday, moved to the top of the timesheets with a 1m41.904s - more than one second down on Dani Pedrosa's record pole time - two hours from the end.

Even as he did so most eyes were focussed on Suzuki's new MotoGP challenger, codenamed the XRH-1, as it made its first appearance alongside the 2013 field.

Test rider Randy de Puniet improved throughout the day and in the final hour moved to a 1m42.676s, less than eight tenths of a second down on Lorenzo.

The Frenchman, also one of the day's busiest riders with 73 laps, was faster than the satellite machines of Andrea Iannone and Bradley Smith, although the latter left the test early to have surgery on his injured left hand.

Ducati's Nicky Hayden came close to denying Lorenzo top spot late on but eventually had to settle for second, five hundredths of a second down.

The American spent some time trialling a new rear compound developed by Bridgestone.

His late improvement demoted Stefan Bradl, the only Honda rider present at the test, to third.

Bradl will travel to Aragon, where factory riders Pedrosa and Marc Marquez are due to test on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Andrea Dovizioso edged out his old Tech 3 stablemate Cal Crutchlow in the fight for fourth, while behind them Valentino Rossi went sixth fastest, 0.609s down on Lorenzo.

The Italian brought the red flags when he crashed in the afternoon, but he was unhurt and able to resume shortly after.

Aspar Aprilia rider Pol Espargaro was the fastest CRT rider, edging out de Puniet - his 2013 team-mate - to claim seventh.

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike             Time       Gap       Laps
 1.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha                1m41.904s            54
 2.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati                1m41.955s  + 0.051s  73
 3.  Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda             1m42.227s  + 0.323s  31
 4.  Andrea Dovizioso  Ducati                1m42.417s  + 0.513s  56
 5.  Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha         1m42.462s  + 0.558s  57
 6.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha                1m42.513s  + 0.609s  57
 7.  Aleix Espargaro   Aspar Aprilia         1m42.537s  + 0.633s  63
 8.  Randy de Puniet   Suzuki                1m42.676s  + 0.772s  73
 9.  Andrea Iannone    Pramac Ducati         1m42.697s  + 0.793s  65
10.  Bradley Smith     Tech 3 Yamaha         1m43.180s  + 1.276s  25
11.  Michele Pirro     Pramac Ducati         1m43.784s  + 1.880s  70
12.  Hector Barbera    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  1m43.899s  + 1.995s  54
13.  Colin Edwards     Forward FTR-Kawasaki  1m44.183s  + 2.279s  38
14.  Karel Abraham     Cardion Aprilia       1m44.458s  + 2.554s  61
15.  Danilo Petrucci   Ioda-Suter-BMW        1m44.477s  + 2.573s  49
16.  Michael Laverty   PBM-Aprilia           1m44.547s  + 2.643s  53
17.  Claudio Corti     Forward FTR-Kawasaki  1m44.794s  + 2.890s  56
18.  Yonny Hernandez   PBM Aprilia           1m45.078s  + 3.174s  36
19.  Lukas Pesek       Ioda-Suter-BMW        1m47.379s  + 5.475s  52

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