Valentino Rossi and Dani Pedrosa tied for the top spot on the final day of the second 2014 pre-season MotoGP test at Sepang.

Yamaha rider Rossi’s 1m59.999s had him ahead in the closing stages, but Pedrosa achieved an identical lap on his Honda with eight minutes to go.

The whole lead pack was extremely close, with Andrea Dovizioso providing more encouragement for Ducati as he lapped with 0.068sec of Rossi and Pedrosa in third place.

Open class rider Aleix Espargaro continued to fly on Forward’s FTR-Yamaha, as he edged out LCR Honda’s Stefan Bradl for fourth.

Two-time world champion Jorge Lorenzo was back in seventh place. The Spaniard has been unhappy with Bridgestone’s 2014 tire throughout testing so far, and ended Friday between Alvaro Bautista and Cal Crutchlow. Tech 3 Yamaha duo Bradley Smith and Pol Espargaro completed the top 10.

This week’s three day run at Sepang was the final full-field MotoGP test before the season opener in Qatar on March 23. The works Yamaha, Honda and Ducati teams will take part in a test at Phillip Island from March 3-5, which has been arranged for tire safety reasons after the problems that marred last year’s Australian GP. The rest of the field will test at Losail on March 7-9.

Pos  Rider               Team/Bike             Time       Gap      Laps
 1.  Valentino Rossi     Yamaha                1m59.999s           41
 2.  Dani Pedrosa        Honda                 1m59.999s  +0.000s  50
 3.  Andrea Dovizioso    Ducati                2m00.067s  +0.068s  42
 4.  Aleix Espargaro     Forward FTR-Yamaha    2m00.101s  +0.102s  43
 5.  Stefan Bradl        LCR Honda             2m00.164s  +0.165s  48
 6.  Alvaro Bautista     Gresini Honda         2m00.506s  +0.507s  60
 7.  Jorge Lorenzo       Yamaha                2m00.619s  +0.620s  70
 8.  Cal Crutchlow       Ducati                2m00.790s  +0.791s  62
 9.  Bradley Smith       Tech 3 Yamaha         2m00.804s  +0.805s  71
10.  Pol Espargaro       Tech 3 Yamaha         2m01.032s  +1.033s  54
11.  Andrea Iannone      Pramac Ducati         2m01.198s  +1.199s  47
12.  Randy de Puniet     Suzuki                2m01.430s  +1.431s  55
13.  Yonny Hernandez     Pramac Ducati         2m01.497s  +1.498s  56
14.  Colin Edwards       Forward FTR-Yamaha    2m01.748s  +1.749s  35
15.  Nicky Hayden        Aspar Honda           2m01.924s  +1.925s  59
16.  Michele Pirro       Ducati                2m02.029s  +2.030s  48
17.  Hiroshi Aoyama      Aspar Honda           2m02.070s  +2.071s  61
18.  Scott Redding       Gresini Honda         2m02.228s  +2.229s  50
19.  Hector Barbera      Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  2m02.341s  +2.342s  54
20.  Katsuyuki Nakasuga  Yamaha                2m03.115s  +3.116s  30
21.  Mike di Meglio      Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  2m03.499s  +3.500s  52
22.  Karel Abraham       Cardion Honda         2m04.304s  +4.305s  29
23.  Nobuatsu Aoki       Suzuki                2m06.482s  +6.483s  14

Originally on Autosport.com