Marc Marquez once again emerged fastest from a tight four-way battle for top spot in second MotoGP practice at Misano.

Teammate Dani Pedrosa and the works Yamaha duo of Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi all enjoyed spells on top until Marquez hit the front just before the midway stage.

As was the case in first practice, the championship leader was then able to improve upon his own time to keep himself planted at the head of the times. It was close, however Pedrosa’s final flyer looked good enough to demote the rookie until the final sector, with just 0.033 second to choose between the Spaniards at the flag.

Rossi shaded Lorenzo by a similar margin in the fight for third, with both men less than three tenths down the road from Marquez. The Honda rider, who has won his last three races at Misano in MotoGP’s feeder categories, saved one potential crash with his elbow and also ran wide and through the run-off during the session.

Aleix Espargaro was a surprise fifth on the Aspar CRT machine, just over half a second down.

Alvaro Bautista put his Gresini Honda sixth ahead of Ducati’s Michele Pirro – on the satellite Pramac – and Andrea Dovizioso. Stefan Bradl, meanwhile, could only manage ninth on his LCR Honda, his session disrupted by a fall exiting Turn 6.

Cal Crutchlow rounded out the top 10 for Tech 3, just over one second off the ultimate pace.

Pos Rider             Bike                     Time       Gap      Laps 1. Marc Marquez      Honda                    1m34.200s            22 2. Dani Pedrosa      Honda                    1m34.233s  +0.033s   20 3. Valentino Rossi   Yamaha                   1m34.458s  +0.258s   23 4. Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha                   1m34.495s  +0.295s   19 5. Aleix Espargaro   Aspar Aprilia            1m34.732s  +0.532s   17 6. Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda            1m34.858s  +0.658s   20 7. Michele Pirro     Pramac Ducati            1m34.889s  +0.689s   17 8. Andrea Dovizioso  Ducati                   1m34.901s  +0.701s   22 9. Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda                1m35.107s  +0.907s   2010. Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha            1m35.208s  +1.008s   2211. Andrea Iannone    Pramac Ducati            1m35.218s  +1.018s   2112. Nicky Hayden      Ducati                   1m35.431s  +1.231s   2113. Danilo Petrucci   Ioda-Suter-BMW           1m35.933s  +1.733s   1914. Bradley Smith     Tech 3 Yamaha            1m36.004s  +1.804s   1815. Claudio Corti     Forward FTR-Kawasaki     1m36.122s  +1.922s   1916. Colin Edwards     Forward FTR-Kawasaki     1m36.181s  +1.981s   1917. Hector Barbera    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki     1m36.253s  +2.053s   1518. Randy de Puniet   Aspar Aprilia            1m36.283s  +2.083s   1719. Hiroshi Aoyama    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki     1m36.646s  +2.446s   1420. Karel Abraham     Cardion Ducati           1m37.310s  +3.110s   1321. Michael Laverty   PBM-Aprilia              1m37.334s  +3.134s   1922. Yonny Hernandez   PBM Aprilia              1m37.368s  +3.168s   1323. Bryan Staring     Gresini FTR-Honda        1m37.722s  +3.522s   2224. Lukas Pesek       Ioda-Suter-BMW           1m38.962s  +4.762s   19