Jerez MotoGP: Dani Pedrosa fastest for Honda again in practice

Having led the way in both of Friday's sessions at Jerez, Pedrosa focused on used-tyre work for the first 30 of the 45 minutes, but fired back up to the top of the order when it mattered.

Marc Marquez was fastest for the bulk of the morning with a 1m39.413s set early, good enough to shade his team-mate's Friday benchmark and lead Cal Crutchlow by 0.265 seconds.

That stood well into the final third of the session, when the usual soft-tyre shootout to settle the 10 guaranteed Q2 places started.

Aleix Espargaro was the first mover on his Aprilia, recording the morning's third-fastest time and jumping up to fourth in the combined order, with Pedrosa the anomaly on the latter.

Valentino Rossi was 12th but vaulted to top spot with a 1m39.352s with seven minutes to go, as Scott Redding rose to fourth on his Pramac Ducati.

Rossi's stint in first did not last long, with Pedrosa setting a 1m39.272s to move back to the top of the order, while Redding improved again to go second, just 0.041s behind.

Pedrosa then lowered the benchmark further with the weekend's first sub-1m39s lap, a 1m38.580s with four minutes to go.

Lorenzo and his Yamaha replacement Vinales jumped up from 11th and 12th to second and fourth.

Crutchlow also re-entered the top 10 with a lap to go third, but was displaced immediately by Vinales and Marquez.

That meant Rossi had been bumped down to eighth by the final minute, but the Italian moved back up to fifth just before the chequered flag was shown.

Nobody could catch Pedrosa, though, who finished with a margin of 0.218s over Lorenzo in the three-time champion's strongest showing yet on a Ducati.

Vinales, Marquez, Rossi and Crutchlow completed the top six, while Tech3 Yamaha rookies Jonas Folger and Johann Zarco wound up seventh and ninth, split by Redding.

Like Pedrosa, Marc VDS Honda's Jack Miller did not improve on his Friday time until late but did enough to finish 10th and book the final guaranteed place in Q2.

Miller denied Suzuki's Andrea Iannone that spot by 0.080s, while Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso will also contest Q1 after finishing 16th, having made a mistake in the third sector on his final lap.

Espargaro dropped to 14th, as Aprilia ran its winglet-replacement fairing in a grand prix weekend for the first time with team-mate Sam Lowes, who set the 22nd-fastest time.

The KTMs of Bradley Smith and Pol Espargaro finished 17th and 18th, Smith 1.326s off the pace set by Pedrosa.

PRACTICE THREE TIMES: