Phillip Island MotoGP: Honda's Dani Pedrosa tops practice three
Dani Pedrosa edged out Honda team-mate Marc Marquez to set the Saturday morning MotoGP practice pace at Phillip Island
A late 1m29.074s on the hard tyre mandated for the race put Pedrosa on top by 0.048 seconds.
Shortly beforehand, Marquez had grabbed first place from Jorge Lorenzo as he got back up to speed following his second crash of the weekend.
The championship leader had a low-speed fall at MG corner but was swiftly able to resume.
Toby Moody: Pedrosa bites back
Just 0.161s covered the leading five riders at the flag.
Behind the Honda one-two, Yamaha's Valentino Rossi and Gresini Honda's Alvaro Bautista set identical late laps, 0.118s off the pace, to push Lorenzo down to fifth.
Bradley Smith and Nicky Hayden took sixth and seventh as they secured their places in Q2, with Smith's Tech 3 team-mate Cal Crutchlow next up.
Two CRT riders also made the pole shootout, with Colin Edwards and Randy de Puniet flying to ninth and 10th in the session, overshadowing usual class pacesetter Aleix Espargaro.
Bar Hayden's time, it was a poor morning for Ducati. Factory rider Andrea Dovizioso was only 11th and will have to go through Q1, as will both Pramac riders. Yonny Hernandez was also the session's second crasher with a similar fall to Marquez.
Pos Rider Team/Bike Time Gap 1. Dani Pedrosa Honda 1m29.074s 2. Marc Marquez Honda 1m29.122s +0.048s 3. Valentino Rossi Yamaha 1m29.192s +0.118s 4. Alvaro Bautista Gresini Honda 1m29.192s +0.118s 5. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha 1m29.235s +0.161s 6. Bradley Smith Tech 3 Yamaha 1m29.652s +0.578s 7. Nicky Hayden Ducati 1m29.691s +0.617s 8. Cal Crutchlow Tech 3 Yamaha 1m29.731s +0.657s 9. Colin Edwards Forward FTR-Kawasaki 1m29.827s +0.753s 10. Randy de Puniet Aspar Aprilia 1m29.971s +0.897s 11. Aleix Espargaro Aspar Aprilia 1m30.104s +1.030s 12. Andrea Dovizioso Ducati 1m30.312s +1.238s 13. Andrea Iannone Pramac Ducati 1m30.524s +1.450s 14. Hector Barbera Avintia FTR-Kawasaki 1m30.701s +1.627s 15. Danilo Petrucci Ioda-Suter-BMW 1m30.750s +1.676s 16. Claudio Corti Forward FTR-Kawasaki 1m30.909s +1.835s 17. Yonny Hernandez Pramac Ducati 1m31.152s +2.078s 18. Hiroshi Aoyama Avintia FTR-Kawasaki 1m31.182s +2.108s 19. Luca Scassa Cardion Aprilia 1m31.661s +2.587s 20. Bryan Staring Gresini FTR-Honda 1m31.858s +2.784s 21. Lukas Pesek Ioda-Suter-BMW 1m32.074s +3.000s 22. Michael Laverty PBM Aprilia 1m32.314s +3.240s 23. Damian Cudlin PBM-Aprilia 1m33.324s +4.250s
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