Dani Pedrosa set a commanding fastest time in second free practice for MotoGP’s Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang.
Having seen his 2013 world championship hopes effectively ended by his incident with Honda teammate Marc Marquez in the last race at Aragon, Pedrosa began the Malaysian weekend with a point to prove.
Already fastest in morning practice, his 2m00.554s lap near the end of the second session was close to record pace. It put Pedrosa 0.553 second ahead of Marquez, who had previously gone half a second clear of the pack halfway through the session.
A late lap from Tech 3 Yamaha’s Cal Crutchlow got the Briton up to third, ahead of works stablemate Valentino Rossi, whose title-chasing teammate Jorge Lorenzo was only sixth.
The factory Yamahas were split by Gresini Honda rider Alvaro Bautista. The Spaniard had been quickest of all for the first 20 minutes before being deposed by Marquez, and later crashed at Turn 4.
Nicky Hayden was the only other man to have an incident, sliding into the gravel at the final corner but managing to make it back to the Ducati pits. He ended up seventh.
Aleix Espargaro led the CRT field in 11th place, with both Pramac Ducatis trailing him.
Pos Rider Team/Bike Time Gap Laps 1. Dani Pedrosa Honda 2m00.554s 17 2. Marc Marquez Honda 2m01.087s +0.533s 17 3. Cal Crutchlow Tech 3 Yamaha 2m01.423s +0.869s 17 4. Valentino Rossi Yamaha 2m01.538s +0.984s 18 5. Alvaro Bautista Gresini Honda 2m01.659s +1.105s 13 6. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha 2m01.710s +1.156s 14 7. Stefan Bradl LCR Honda 2m01.727s +1.173s 17 8. Nicky Hayden Ducati 2m02.373s +1.819s 15 9. Andrea Dovizioso Ducati 2m02.487s +1.933s 1410. Bradley Smith Tech 3 Yamaha 2m02.551s +1.997s 1811. Alex Espargaro Aspar Aprilia 2m02.610s +2.056s 1312. Andrea Iannone Pramac Ducati 2m02.819s +2.265s 1813. Hector Barbera Avintia FTR-Kawasaki 2m03.225s +2.671s 1514. Colin Edwards Forward FTR-Kawasaki 2m03.707s +3.153s 1715. Yonny Hernandez Pramac Ducati 2m03.780s +3.226s 1616. Randy de Puniet Aspar Aprilia 2m03.922s +3.368s 1617. Hiroshi Aoyama Avintia FTR-Kawasaki 2m04.414s +3.860s 1818. Claudio Corti Forward FTR-Kawasaki 2m04.807s +4.253s 1319. Danilo Petrucci Ioda-Suter-BMW 2m04.965s +4.411s 1920. Michael Laverty PBM-Aprilia 2m05.551s +4.997s 1421. Luca Scassa Cardion Aprilia 2m05.598s +5.044s 1622. Bryan Staring Gresini FTR-Honda 2m06.538s +5.984s 1723. Lucas Pesek Ioda-Suter-BMW 2m07.024s +6.470s 1524. Damian Cudlin PBM Aprilia 2m07.122s +6.568s 13
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