Jorge Lorenzo topped the timesheets in practice ahead of Sunday's Portuguese MotoGP round at Estoril.
Strong return for Stoner
Jorge Lorenzo topped the timesheets in practice ahead of Sunday's Portuguese MotoGP round at Estoril as Casey Stoner made a strong return from illness.
The 2007 world champion has missed the last three rounds of the championship having been blighted by fatigue earlier in the season.
Doctors put Stoner's problems down to low blood pressure and a lack of sodium but he looked back to near his best on Friday and emerged from practice with the fourth fastest time on his Ducati.
Lorenzo lapped the circuit in a time of one minute 37.185 seconds aboard his Fiat Yamaha, with Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa second with a best lap of 1:37.544.
Reigning champion and series leader Valentino Rossi was third, with Stoner and Colin Edwards rounding out the top five.
Meanwhile, James Toseland - who is leaving the series next year and returning to World Superbikes - was eighth-quickest on his Tech 3 Yamaha.
Stressful
Rossi holds a 30-point lead over team-mate Lorenzo and realistically needs just to finish the remaining four races to claim his sixth MotoGP title and seventh premier class crown.
The Italian said of his day's work: "This is quite a difficult track to come back to after a long break because the braking is very hard and it's quite stressful on the arms, but I think it will be better tomorrow.
"We have a slight problem in the balance of the bike in these hard braking areas which we need to work on tomorrow to find a way to improve; we're already quite fast but we need to close the gap a bit more so we will make the most of our time tomorrow so that we're in good shape for qualifying."
Lorenzo admitted that with four rounds including this weekend's remaining, it was important for him to make the early running.
The Spaniard said: "We did a good job and made an encouraging start.
"After a bit of work we were able to do a very good time and I am happy to be in front, it's important at this stage of the championship to make a strong start this weekend.
"We have one or two things to improve but we are in good shape. I am happy to see Casey back and also to see that he is already strong."
