Lorenzo tops shortened Brno test

The championship leader posted a best time of 1m56.269s to finish over half a second clear of Ducati rival Casey Stoner, second fastest today.

The session was interrupted at 3pm local time because of poor weather.

Lorenzo, riding the new prototype Yamaha, still managed 44 laps and was pleased with his progress.

"This was an important and interesting test for us, both for the rest of the season and looking towards next year," he said. "We had a lot to do but unfortunately the rain forced us to stop early.

"As well as the 'new' prototype machine for next year we also tried an engine upgrade and a new Ohlins suspension, but it's too early to know if they will be better for our M1, which is already very competitive. We got quite a lot of information though so hopefully it will help the engineers to improve things even more."

Stoner tried new components for his Ducati, but the Australian was left lamenting the poor weather.

"We tried a new fork today and as far as we could tell the feeling is positive," Stoner said. "Unfortunately we were only able to get a couple of hours in this morning because immediately after lunch it started to rain and we couldn't complete the test.

"I hung about in the garage in case we got chance to go back out but the track stayed wet and there was no point. Our impressions of the fork are good but really the day was a bit of a waste."

Honda's Dani Pedrosa was third fastest, the Spaniard focusing on improving his race set-up before testing his RC212V with a modified chassis.

Before lunchtime Pedrosa had a low-speed fall at Turn 7, but he was able to return to the track to continue testing in the afternoon.

Valentino Rossi completed the top five with the second Yamaha ahead of Colin Edwards and Ben Spies, who also tried a new Yamaha M1 with no livery.

Japanese rider Hiroshi Aoyama was back in action following his injuries, the Interwetten-Honda rider finishing as 14th quickest.

Pos  Rider              Team                       Time      
 1.  Jorge Lorenzo      Fiat Yamaha Team           1:56.269
 2.  Casey Stoner       Ducati Marlboro Team       1:56.844
 3.  Dani Pedrosa       Repsol Honda Team          1:56.944
 4.  Valentino Rossi    Fiat Yamaha Team           1:57.129
 5.  Colin Edwards      Monster Yamaha Tech 3      1:57.512
 6.  Ben Spies          Monster Yamaha Tech 3      1:57.575
 7.  Andrea Dovizioso   Repsol Honda Team          1:57.691
 8.  Loris Capirossi    Rizla Suzuki MotoGP        1:57.700
 9.  Nicky Hayden       Ducati Marlboro Team       1:57.991
10.  Hector Barbera     Aspar Team                 1:58.017
11.  Marco Melandri     San Carlo Honda Gresini    1:58.070
12.  Marco Simoncelli   San Carlo Honda Gresini    1:58.091
13.  Aleix Espargaro    Pramac Green Team          1:58.612
14.  Hiroshi Aoyama     Interwetten-Honda MotoGP   1:58.830
15.  Mika Kallio        Pramac Green Team          1:58.926
16.  Alvaro Bautista    Rizla Suzuki MotoGP        1:59.454