Lorenzo starts strongly at Estoril

The Yamaha rider has fond memories of the Estoril circuit, having taken his maiden victory there from pole position last season in just his third race in the category.

He wasted no time in establishing his position at the head of the timesheet this afternoon and continued to chip away at his best time throughout the hour-long session.

Lorenzo finished up four tenths of a second quicker than the second fastest rider, Honda's Dani Pedrosa. Valentino Rossi and Casey Stoner set the next best times as MotoGP's top four were reunited by the Australian's return.

Stoner matched Pedrosa and Rossi tenth for tenth through the session on his Ducati, but was unable to find the same improvement in the final minutes of the session.

The top four had been well clear of the rest until then, but Colin Edwards and Andrea Dovizioso both made significant gains on their last runs to close the gap to the leading quartet.

Randy de Puniet was seventh fastest on the first of the customer Hondas, while Edwards' Tech 3 Yamaha team-mate James Toseland was eight in his first session since announcing his return to World Superbikes next season.

Alex de Angelis and Mika Kallio completed the top 10, the latter having rejoined the Pramac Ducati team now that Stoner is back on the works bike.

Nicky Hayden was 11th on the second factory Ducati, with Loris Capirossi the best of the Suzukis in 12th.

Pos Rider                 Team                 Time          Gap
 1. Jorge Lorenzo         Yamaha               1m37.185s
 2. Dani Pedrosa          Honda                1m37.544s  +0.359
 3. Valentino Rossi       Yamaha               1m37.606s  +0.421
 4. Casey Stoner          Ducati               1m37.966s  +0.781
 5. Colin Edwards         Tech 3 Yamaha        1m38.103s  +0.918
 6. Andrea Dovizioso      Honda                1m38.244s  +1.059
 7. Randy de Puniet       LCR Honda            1m38.385s  +1.200
 8. James Toseland        Tech 3 Yamaha        1m38.591s  +1.406
 9. Alex de Angelis       Gresini Honda        1m38.629s  +1.444
10. Mika Kallio           Pramac Ducati        1m38.661s  +1.476
11. Nicky Hayden          Ducati               1m38.850s  +1.665
12. Loris Capirossi       Suzuki               1m38.978s  +1.793
13. Niccolo Canepa        PRamac Ducati        1m39.033s  +1.848
14. Gabor Talmacsi        Scot Honda           1m39.393s  +2.208
15. Toni Elias            Gresini Honda        1m39.567s  +2.382
16. Chris Vermeulen       Suzuki               1m39.686s  +2.501
17. Marco Melandri        Hayate Kawasaki      1m39.757s  +2.572