Dani Pedrosa leads Honda one-two in German MotoGP practice

Top spot had belonged exclusively to Honda during the 40-minute session, Pedrosa and team-mate Casey Stoner trading times throughout, although Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo was able to shadow the duo and stay within two tenths of a second.

It was Stoner who had looked most likely to end the session on top, having got down to a 1m22.444s as the chequered flag fell.

Pedrosa's final effort carried the Spaniard to the top of the timesheets however, at a circuit where he was victorious in both 2011 and 2010.

The top three riders' pace proved too much for the rest of the field, although Andrea Dovizioso was able to drop below the 1m23s mark in the late stages. He ended fourth fastest as a result, just over half a second adrift.

Tech 3 Yamaha stablemate Cal Crutchlow, still riding with a fractured ankle, ended the session in fifth, less than two tenths down on Dovizioso.

Hector Barbera finished as the fastest Ducati, putting his satellite Pramac machine sixth ahead of works rider Nicky Hayden, Gresini's Alvaro Bautista - who will start from the back of the grid following his Dutch TT clash with Lorenzo - and LCR Honda's Stefan Bradl.

The second works Yamaha of Ben Spies rounded out the top 10 ahead of Valentino Rossi on the second works Ducati.

Franco Battaini, replacing Karel Abraham at the Cardion Ducati squad, suffered one incident through the gravel 13 minutes from the end. He finished down in 18th position.

Aspar's Aleix Espargaro crashed at Turn 10, while Speed Master's Mattia Pasini suffered a bizarre pitlane crash when a Cardion mechanic stepped out in front of him. He fell heavily as a result, and went to the local hospital for further checks.

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike                 Time       Gap
 1.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda                     1m22.357s
 2.  Casey Stoner      Honda                     1m22.444s  + 0.087s
 3.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha                    1m22.647s  + 0.290s
 4.  Andrea Dovizioso  Tech 3 Yamaha             1m22.922s  + 0.565s
 5.  Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha             1m23.081s  + 0.724s
 6.  Hector Barbera    Pramac Ducati             1m23.091s  + 0.734s
 7.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati                    1m23.092s  + 0.735s
 8.  Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda             1m23.203s  + 0.846s
 9.  Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda                 1m23.306s  + 0.949s
10.  Ben Spies         Yamaha                    1m23.353s  + 0.996s
11.  Valentino Rossi   Ducati                    1m23.481s  + 1.124s
12.  Randy de Puniet   Aspar Aprilia             1m24.210s  + 1.853s
13.  Colin Edwards     Forward Suter-BMW         1m24.560s  + 2.203s
14.  Michele Pirro     Gresini FTR-Honda         1m24.659s  + 2.302s
15.  Yonny Hernandez   Avintia FTR-Kawasaki      1m24.786s  + 2.429s
16.  Aleix Espargaro   Aspar Aprilia             1m24.855s  + 2.498s
17.  Ivan Silva        Avintia Inmotec-Kawasaki  1m25.512s  + 3.155s
18.  Franco Battaini   Cardion Ducati            1m25.646s  + 3.289s
19.  Mattia Pasini     Speed Master Aprilia      1m25.839s  + 3.482s
20.  Danilo Petrucci   Ioda-Aprilia              1m25.958s  + 3.601s
21.  James Ellison     Paul Bird Aprilia         1m26.183s  + 3.826s