Jorge Lorenzo came through a nasty crash unscathed to end the opening day of practice for the Tissot Australian Grand Prix on top.

The Yamaha rider set the pace from the outset of the 45 minute session with an early 1m29.602s effort proving good enough to end the day atop of the timing screens.

However, the double world champion’s day ended abruptly when he suffered a crash at the Honda hairpin while trialling Bridgestone’s new asymmetric front tyre in the dying minutes of the hit out.

The session was littered with accidents with Monster Yamaha’s Pol Espargaro and Aspar’s Hiroshi Aoyama falling at the same corner.

The Ducati’s of Andrea Dovizioso and Anbdrea Iannone also encountered incidents at Lukey Heights.

In the end, Honda’s Marc Marquez proved to be Lorenzo’s closest challenge with the new two-time world champion just 0.150s adrift of the lead Yamaha.

Despite his fall, Iannone ended the session in third just ahead of Dovizioso and Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi.

Aleix Espargaro, who topped the opening free practice session, was sixth in front of Ducati’s Cal Crutchlow and Pol Espargaro.

Yonny Hernandez showed encouraging signs in ninth while Honda’s Dani Pedrosa could only muster a time quick enough for 10^th spot.

The third free practice session will take place on Saturday at 10.55am (Melbourne time).

MotoGP Free Practice 2 Results