Rain finally stops in Portugal

Bright sunshine finally emerged at the end of the afternoon practice session at Estoril today, but only after heavy rain throughout the day had significantly disrupted the start of the Grand Prix of Portugal race weekend. The morning session was almost a complete wash-out, with only two riders leaving the pits to brave the treacherous track conditions and the thunderstorm that raged overhead. Most of the MotoGP field chose to sit out the session for safety reasons, and also because of the limited returns of riding in such conditions.

The afternoon practice also started wet, but the rain clouds had done their worst by this point and, although there were still some puddles around the track, the surface slowly began to dry as the session progressed. With marginal conditions throughout however, the lap times were widely spread as some riders were clearly more comfortable than others on the cold and slippery surface.

Newly crowned 2010 MotoGP World Champion Lorenzo was clearly enjoying one of his favorite circuits on the calendar, relishing the enjoyment of riding with the pressure of the world championship title battle no longer a focus. The young Mallorcan lapped consistently within the top four before a final push at the end of the session to secure the fastest time in advance of tomorrow's qualifying sessions.

Jorge Lorenzo – Position: 1stTime: 1'48.522Laps: 20
"I love this track, I have won here both times in MotoGP so I am very happy to be here. Unfortunately the weather was terrible this morning and there was no point in riding, then this afternoon it was still very difficult, with a lot of water on the track and you had to be very careful. I felt good despite the conditions and step-by-step we improved so that at the end, when it was slightly drier, I was able to set a good time and we are on top. Tomorrow we will have two longer sessions so we will be able to recover some of the lost time, let's hope for no more rain!"