Zoom Jorge Lorenzo

He may have traded in his gold boots, helmet and gloves for a more restrained red attire, but Fiat Yamaha´s Jorge Lorenzo is showing no signs of settling for anything less than the best in his rookie MotoGP season.

The Spaniard cut a second off his morning time to head the timesheets at his home track in the afternoon session, clocking a 1´40.321 lap of the circuit at which he has won the last two 250cc Grands Prix.

Lorenzo is on a roll after his pole position and second place at the opening race of the season in Qatar, flying high with his Michelin-shod Yamaha M1. Bringing the `Lorenshow´ to European soil for the first time this weekend since his move up to the premier class, the 20 year-old has an extremely healthy following already filling up the grandstands at the Circuito de Jerez.

Also mirroring the Qatar visit, the top three was an all-Yamaha affair, with Lorenzo´s team-mate and five-time World Champion Valentino Rossi trailing his youthful factory team counterpart by just four hundredths of a second. Rossi has a proven pedigree at Jerez -including victory in last year´s race- and has started well in his quest to catch up with series leader and current titlist Casey Stoner.

Colin Edwards completes the Yamaha top triumvirate onboard the Tech 3 satellite version of the M1, down on power but high on enthusiasm in Jerez. Behind him, countryman and former World Champion Nicky Hayden and Dani Pedrosa lead the Honda charge on their very different respective factory machinery. Hayden is using the same chassis run by Pedrosa at Losail, with some modifications to suit his riding style, after an unsuccessful experiment with the 2007 HRC212V in Qatar.

Jerez is not one of the tracks favoured by Ducati Marlboro´s reigning MotoGP World Champion Stoner, who suffered a lowside crash at turn seven. Luckily for the Australian he escaped uninjured in the incident, although he was unable to improve upon his morning time and rounded off the top six.

Behind Stoner, two of the impressive MotoGP rookies took further strides onboard their respective satellite machinery. JiR Team Scot´s Andrea Dovizioso and Tech 3 Yamaha star James Toseland were seventh and eighth in the standings, although the latter took a hit in the first MotoGP crash of the day on turn three. Unlike at the Official Test in January –at which the Briton picked up an ankle injury- Toseland escaped unscathed and was back in the saddle a few minutes later.

Rizla Suzuki´s Loris Capirossi and San Carlo Honda Gresini rookie Alex de Angelis propped up the top ten, whilst there were additional crashes for Alice Team rider Sylvain Guintoli, De Angelis´ team-mate Shinya Nakano and Kawasaki´s John Hopkins.

DORNA / CAPSIS International