Sepang MotoGP test: Dani Pedrosa edges Aleix Espargaro

The works Honda rider surged ahead in the final hour, denying Espargaro by just over two tenths of a second.

The latter excelled once again on his Open class Forward FTR-Yamaha, setting the pace for much of the day.

Alvaro Bautista, who went quickest on an unusual opening day, continued his own strong start by going third fastest for the Gresini Honda squad.

The Spaniard finished two tenths of a second down the road from Espargaro, and within half a second of Pedrosa.

Valentino Rossi, among the day's busiest riders with 60 laps under his belt, ended up fourth overall.

His Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo, disgruntled by Bridgestone's new tyre compounds, finished five places and the best part of half a second further back.

Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso and Cal Crutchlow occupied fifth and seventh respectively, sandwiching the second satellite Honda of LCR man Stefan Bradl.

Pol Espargaro meanwhile ended up eighth for the Tech 3 satellite Yamaha outfit, the last rider to get within one second of Pedrosa.

As was the case on day one, Nicky Hayden was the best of Honda's Open riders but was 14th overall and more than 1.7s slower than the elder Espargaro.

Honda confirmed on Wednesday that Pedrosa's team-mate and defending champion Marc Marquez will miss the rest of the 2014 pre-season as a result of the broken leg he sustained in a training accident.

Pos  Rider               Team/Bike             Time       Gap      Laps
 1.  Dani Pedrosa        Honda                 2m00.039s           57
 2.  Aleix Espargaro     Forward FTR-Yamaha    2m00.320s  +0.281s  41
 3.  Alvaro Bautista     Gresini Honda         2m00.500s  +0.461s  55
 4.  Valentino Rossi     Yamaha                2m00.605s  +0.566s  60
 5.  Andrea Dovizioso    Ducati                2m00.787s  +0.748s  48
 6.  Stefan Bradl        LCR Honda             2m00.902s  +0.863s  52
 7.  Cal Crutchlow       Ducati                2m00.952s  +0.913s  52
 8.  Pol Espargaro       Tech 3 Yamaha         2m01.027s  +0.988s  47
 9.  Jorge Lorenzo       Yamaha                2m01.049s  +1.010s  57
10.  Bradley Smith       Tech 3 Yamaha         2m01.098s  +1.059s  60
11.  Andrea Iannone      Pramac Ducati         2m01.173s  +1.134s  49
12.  Yonny Hernandez     Pramac Ducati         2m01.658s  +1.619s  50
13.  Colin Edwards       Forward FTR-Yamaha    2m01.996s  +1.957s  45
14.  Nicky Hayden        Aspar Honda           2m02.088s  +2.049s  59
15.  Randy de Puniet     Suzuki                2m02.139s  +2.100s  60
16.  Hector Barbera      Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  2m02.149s  +2.110s  45
17.  Scott Redding       Gresini Honda         2m02.652s  +2.613s  54
18.  Hiroshi Aoyama      Aspar Honda           2m02.786s  +2.747s  72
19.  Michele Pirro       Ducati                2m02.799s  +2.760s  45
20.  Katsuyuki Nakasuga  Yamaha                2m02.802s  +2.763s  48
21.  Mike di Meglio      Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  2m03.946s  +3.907s  51
22.  Karel Abraham       Cardion Honda         2m05.198s  +5.159s  25
23.  Nobuatsu Aoki       Suzuki                2m07.462s  +7.423s  20