Lorenzo quickest in first practice

The Yamaha rider and runaway championship leader swapped the top spot with LCR Honda's Randy de Puniet early on before pulling clear. He was later challenged - and briefly headed by - Casey Stoner, before moving back ahead of the Ducati with a 1m43.4s, which he later improved to a benchmark 1m43.259s.

Stoner progressed to a 1m43.631s with his final run to secure second, ahead of the two Hondas. Dani Pedrosa's last lap got him in front of team-mate Andrea Dovizioso for third.

Ben Spies (Tech 3 Yamaha) languished near the foot of the times as he learned the circuit before leaping to fifth right at the end.

Pramac Ducati's Aleix Espargaro was a top ten factor throughout, and ended up an outstanding sixth, pushing de Puniet back to seventh.

It was a quiet session for Nicky Hayden on the second Ducati. As low as 14th for much of the afternoon, he eventually got up to eighth. Colin Edwards (Tech 3 Yamaha) and Marco Simoncelli (Gresini Honda) completed the top ten.

Alvaro Bautista showed Suzuki's best form for several events by holding a top six place at first, before crashing. He was able to walk back to the pits and rejoin, but fell to 12th.

Marco Melandri completed 22 laps as he evaluated his shoulder after dislocating it at Assen a week ago. The Gresini Honda rider was 14th but just 1.5s off the pace.

Valentino Rossi's substitute Wataru Yoshikawa was unsurprisingly slowest as he acclimatised to his sudden elevation into MotoGP. He was within 4.7s of the pace, though, after a long battle with fellow stand-in Kousuke Akiyoshi, making another appearance for Interwetten Honda while Hiroshi Aoyama recovers from his Silverstone crash.

Pos  Rider             Team               Time       Gap
 1.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha             1m43.259s
 2.  Casey Stoner      Ducati             1m43.412s  + 0.153s
 3.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda              1m43.631s  + 0.372s
 4.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda              1m43.725s  + 0.466s
 5.  Ben Spies         Tech 3 Yamaha      1m43.854s  + 0.595s
 6.  Aleix Espargaro   Pramac Ducati      1m44.136s  + 0.877s
 7.  Randy de Puniet   LCR Honda          1m44.196s  + 0.937s
 8.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati             1m44.440s  + 1.181s
 9.  Colin Edwards     Tech 3 Yamaha      1m44.551s  + 1.292s
10.  Marco Simoncelli  Gresini Honda      1m44.634s  + 1.375s
11.  Loris Capirossi   Suzuki             1m44.641s  + 1.382s
12.  Alvaro Bautista   Suzuki             1m44.692s  + 1.433s
13.  Mika Kallio       Pramac Ducati      1m44.745s  + 1.486s
14.  Marco Melandri    Gresini Honda      1m44.806s  + 1.547s
15.  Hector Barbera    Aspar Ducati       1m45.004s  + 1.745s
16.  Kousuke Akiyoshi  Interwetten Honda  1m47.757s  + 4.498s
17.  Wataru Yoshikawa  Yamaha             1m48.015s  + 4.756s