Sepang MotoGP: Pedrosa leads Espargaro and Lorenzo in practice
Dani Pedrosa edged out Aleix Espargaro and Jorge Lorenzo in a top three covered by just 0.037 seconds in opening practice for MotoGP's Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang
Pedrosa was fastest for most of the morning session, initially leading a Honda one-two with team-mate Marc Marquez.
He was deposed by Lorenzo's Yamaha, which in turn was then beaten by Forward Yamaha rider Espargaro with a lap 0.023s faster.
That was despite Espargaro having suffered the only crash of the morning earlier in the session, when he lost his bike under braking into the final corner.
Pedrosa responded on his last run with a lap of 2m01.379s to depose Espargaro by 0.014s.
The performance came a day after Honda announced that it was promoting Ramon Aurin to replace Pedrosa's long-time crew chief Mike Leitner, following months of rumours about big changes on Pedrosa's side of the garage.
His team-mate Marquez never managed to improve on his early time, despite showing better pace in a few sectors, and ended up fourth.
Stefan Bradl and Valentino Rossi completed the top six, followed by Ducati team-mates Andrea Dovizioso and Cal Crutchlow.
| Pos | Rider | Team | Bike | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dani Pedrosa | Honda | Honda | 2m01.379s | - |
| 2 | Aleix Espargaro | Forward Racing | Forward Yamaha | 2m01.393s | 0.014s |
| 3 | Jorge Lorenzo | Yamaha | Yamaha | 2m01.416s | 0.037s |
| 4 | Marc Marquez | Honda | Honda | 2m01.670s | 0.291s |
| 5 | Stefan Bradl | LCR | Honda | 2m01.716s | 0.337s |
| 6 | Valentino Rossi | Yamaha | Yamaha | 2m01.842s | 0.463s |
| 7 | Andrea Dovizioso | Ducati | Ducati | 2m01.971s | 0.592s |
| 8 | Cal Crutchlow | Ducati | Ducati | 2m02.171s | 0.792s |
| 9 | Yonny Hernandez | Pramac Racing | Ducati | 2m02.209s | 0.830s |
| 10 | Pol Espargaro | Tech 3 | Yamaha | 2m02.248s | 0.869s |
| 11 | Andrea Iannone | Pramac Racing | Ducati | 2m02.597s | 1.218s |
| 12 | Bradley Smith | Tech 3 | Yamaha | 2m02.627s | 1.248s |
| 13 | Alvaro Bautista | Gresini Racing | Honda | 2m02.722s | 1.343s |
| 14 | Hiroshi Aoyama | Aspar | Honda | 2m02.847s | 1.468s |
| 15 | Scott Redding | Gresini Racing | Honda | 2m02.898s | 1.519s |
| 16 | Karel Abraham | Cardion AB Motoracing | Honda | 2m02.935s | 1.556s |
| 17 | Hector Barbera | Avintia Racing | Ducati | 2m03.220s | 1.841s |
| 18 | Nicky Hayden | Aspar | Honda | 2m03.787s | 2.408s |
| 19 | Alex de Angelis | Forward Racing | Forward Yamaha | 2m04.454s | 3.075s |
| 20 | Michael Laverty | Paul Bird Motorsport | PBM/Aprilia | 2m04.553s | 3.174s |
| 21 | Danilo Petrucci | IodaRacing Project | ART/Aprilia | 2m04.658s | 3.279s |
| 22 | Mike Di Meglio | Avintia Racing | Avintia/Kawasaki | 2m05.007s | 3.628s |
| 23 | Broc Parkes | Paul Bird Motorsport | PBM/Aprilia | 2m06.195s | 4.816s |
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