Sepang MotoGP testing: Dani Pedrosa ends on top

While times had been extremely close on Tuesday and Wednesday, Pedrosa moved clear on day three.

The Honda rider set the best time of the week with a 2m00.100s lap, 0.329 seconds clear of Yamaha rival Jorge Lorenzo.

Valentino Rossi was only 0.113s behind Lorenzo on the second Yamaha in third place. The Italian felt on Wednesday that he was already up to speed and would have matched his team-mate but for a mistake on his best lap.

Rookie Marc Marquez had his first blip when he crashed at the final corner during the morning. He was unhurt and rejoined later to secure fourth.

Cal Crutchlow was best of the rest once again on the Tech 3 Yamaha, with his new team-mate Bradley Smith eighth behind Stefan Bradl and Alvaro Bautista.

The works Ducatis of Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso fell back to being two seconds off the pace in ninth and 10th, while Pramac's Andrea Iannone was outpaced by CRT leader Aleix Espargaro's Aprilia.

Iannone was the only Pramac rider in action as Ben Spies chose to skip the final day to rest his still-recovering shoulder.

One of the best performances of the test came from Paul Bird's rookie rider Michael Laverty, who was second-fastest among the CRTs, 1.2s behind Espargaro.

Pos  Rider               Bike                    Time               Laps
 1.  Dani Pedrosa        Honda                   2m00.100s            44
 2.  Jorge Lorenzo       Yamaha                  2m00.429s  + 0.329s  60
 3.  Valentino Rossi     Yamaha                  2m00.542s  + 0.442s  60
 4.  Marc Marquez        Honda                   2m00.636s  + 0.536s  54
 5.  Cal Crutchlow       Tech 3 Yamaha           2m00.734s  + 0.634s  3
 6.  Stefan Bradl        LCR Honda               2m01.003s  + 0.903s  43
 7.  Alvaro Bautista     Gresini Honda           2m01.502s  + 1.402s  48
 8.  Bradley Smith       Tech 3 Yamaha           2m02.093s  + 1.993s  48
 9.  Nicky Hayden        Ducati                  2m02.184s  + 2.084s  60
10.  Andrea Dovizioso    Ducati                  2m02.277s  + 2.177s  43
11.  Katsayuki Nakasuga  Yamaha                  2m02.616s  + 2.516s  21
12.  Aleix Espargaro     Aspar Aprilia           2m02.628s  + 2.528s  47
13.  Andrea Iannone      Pramac Ducati           2m02.864s  + 2.764s  35
14.  Kosuke Akiyoshi     Honda                   2m03.082s  + 2.982s  28
15.  Michael Laverty     Paul Bird Aprilia       2m03.874s  + 3.774s  47
16.  Randy de Puniet     Aspar Aprilia           2m04.066s  + 3.966s  39
17.  Wataru Yoshikawa    Yamaha                  2m04.137s  + 4.037s   8
18.  Hector Barbera      Avintia FTR-Kawasaki    2m04.211s  + 4.111s  41
19.  Takumi Takahashi    Honda                   2m04.288s  + 4.188s  46
20.  Danilo Petrucci     Ioda Suter-BMW          2m04.531s  + 4.431s  34
21.  Karel Abraham       Cardion Aprilia         2m04.766s  + 4.666s  65
22.  Hiroshi Aoyama      Avintia FTR-Kawasaki    2m04.915s  + 4.815s  51
23.  Claudio Corti       Forward FTR-Kawasaki    2m05.107s  + 5.007s  41
24.  Lukas Pesek         Ioda Suter-BMW          2m05.321s  + 5.221s  40
25.  Yonny Hernandez     Paul Bird Motorsport    2m05.407s  + 5.307s  48
26.  Colin Edwards       Forward FTR-Kawasaki    2m05.913s  + 5.813s  46
27.  Bryan Staring       Gresini FTR-Honda       2m05.970s  + 5.870s  41