Sepang MotoGP: Dani Pedrosa denies the Yamahas in practice three

With rain in the air and some dampness on the track initially, Honda did not appear too fussed about chasing quick times at first, with Marc Marquez not even going for a flying lap until the last few minutes.

As the Hondas hung back, Yamaha led the way. Valentino Rossi was fastest for a long spell before Jorge Lorenzo pipped him by 0.093 seconds as both closed to within 0.4s of Pedrosa's Friday pace.

Pedrosa would not be denied, though, and on his final lap of the session did a 2m00.877s to beat Lorenzo by 0.046s.

Marquez was only seventh, a second off the pace.

Stefan Bradl's LCR Honda, Cal Crutchlow's Tech 3 Yamaha and Alvaro Bautista's Gresini Honda completed the top six.

The top five prototype teams secured the automatic Q2 places.

Leading CRT rider Aleix Espargaro did threaten to snatch a top 10 spot late on, but Bradley Smith improved enough to fend the Aspar man off.

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike             Time       Gap
 1.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda                 2m00.877s
 2.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha                2m00.923s  +0.046s
 3.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha                2m00.970s  +0.093s
 4.  Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda             2m01.083s  +0.206s
 5.  Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha         2m01.373s  +0.496s
 6.  Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda         2m01.623s  +0.746s
 7.  Marc Marquez      Honda                 2m01.956s  +1.079s
 8.  Andrea Dovizioso  Ducati                2m01.966s  +1.089s
 9.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati                2m02.226s  +1.349s
10.  Bradley Smith     Tech 3 Yamaha         2m02.388s  +1.511s
11.  Aleix Espargaro   Aspar Aprilia         2m02.555s  +1.678s
12.  Andrea Iannone    Pramac Ducati         2m02.564s  +1.687s
13.  Hector Barbera    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  2m03.238s  +2.361s
14.  Yonny Hernandez   Pramac Ducati         2m03.558s  +2.681s
15.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  2m03.660s  +2.783s
16.  Randy de Puniet   Aspar Aprilia         2m03.834s  +2.957s
17.  Claudio Corti     Forward FTR-Kawasaki  2m03.879s  +3.002s
18.  Colin Edwards     Forward FTR-Kawasaki  2m04.306s  +3.429s
19.  Danilo Petrucci   Ioda-Suter-BMW        2m04.936s  +4.059s
20.  Luca Scassa       Cardion Aprilia       2m05.227s  +4.350s
21.  Michael Laverty   PBM Aprilia           2m05.358s  +4.481s
22.  Bryan Staring     Gresini FTR-Honda     2m06.601s  +5.724s
23.  Damian Cudlin     PBM-Aprilia           2m06.916s  +6.039s
24.  Lukas Pesek       Ioda-Suter-BMW        2m06.946s  +6.069s