Pedrosa tops final Sepang practice

The Honda rider, who has taken pole for the last two Malaysian Grands Prix, was in front for almost the entire hour.

Pedrosa chipped away at his fastest time with almost every run, getting down from an early 2m01.941s to a 2m01.427s just after the half hour mark, which put the Spaniard six tenths of a second clear of his rivals at the time.

The pack soon crept closer though, with Stoner (Ducati) getting within 0.058 seconds in the closing moments, and then Rossi (Yamaha) only missing Pedrosa's time by 0.019s with his final lap. Both were up on Pedrosa earlier in their laps, but lost time in the final sectors - nearly 0.3s in Rossi's case.

Jorge Lorenzo was fourth on the second Yamaha, 0.377s off the pace, and 0.3s ahead of the contest over fifth, which saw feverish place swapping between Andrea Dovizioso (Honda), Toni Elias (Gresini Honda) and Nicky Hayden (Ducati) during the last runs.

Tech 3 Yamaha's Colin Edwards was eighth - eight places and 1.6s ahead of his struggling team-mate James Toseland. Pramac Ducati rider Mika Kallio took ninth, ahead of Loris Capirossi's Suzuki.

Pos  Rider             Bike             Time       Gap
 1.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda            2m01.427s
 2.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha           2mo1.446s  + 0.019s
 3.  Casey Stoner      Ducati           2m01.485s  + 0.058s
 4.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha           2m01.804s  + 0.377s
 5.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda            2m02.076s  + 0.649s
 6.  Toni Elias        Gresini Honda    2m02.181s  + 0.754s
 7.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati           2m02.416s  + 0.989s
 8.  Colin Edwards     Tech 3 Yamaha    2m02.425s  + 0.998s
 9.  Mika Kallio       Pramac Ducati    2m02.607s  + 1.180s
10.  Loris Capirossi   Suzuki           2m02.825s  + 1.398s
11.  Randy de Puniet   LCR Honda        2m02.993s  + 1.566s
12.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki           2m03.181s  + 1.754s
13.  Alex de Angelis   Gresini Honda    2m03.220s  + 1.793s
14.  Aleix Espargaro   Pramac Ducati    2m03.458s  + 2.031s
15.  Marco Melandri    Hayate Kawasaki  2m03.732s  + 2.305s
16.  James Toseland    Tech 3 Yamaha    2m04.078s  + 2.651s
17.  Gabor Talmacsi    Scot Honda       2m04.492s  + 3.065s