Dani Pedrosa edged out Honda team-mate Marc Marquez to set the Saturday morning MotoGP practice pace at Phillip Island.

A late 1m29.074s on the hard tire mandated for the race put Pedrosa on top by 0.048 second. Shortly beforehand, Marquez had grabbed first place from Jorge Lorenzo as he got back up to speed following his second crash of the weekend.

The championship leader had a low-speed fall at MG corner but was swiftly able to resume. Just 0.161sec covered the leading five riders at the flag.

Behind the Honda one-two, Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi and Gresini Honda’s Alvaro Bautista set identical late laps, 0.118sec off the pace, to push Lorenzo down to fifth.

Bradley Smith and Nicky Hayden took sixth and seventh as they secured their places in Q2, with Smith’s Tech 3 teammate Cal Crutchlow next up.

Two CRT riders also made the pole shootout, with Colin Edwards and Randy de Puniet flying to ninth and 10th in the session, overshadowing usual class pacesetter Aleix Espargaro.

Bar Hayden’s time, it was a poor morning for Ducati. Factory rider Andrea Dovizioso was only 11th and will have to go through Q1, as will both Pramac riders. Yonny Hernandez was also the session’s second crasher with a similar fall to Marquez.

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike             Time       Gap 1.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda                 1m29.074s 2.  Marc Marquez      Honda                 1m29.122s  +0.048s 3.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha                1m29.192s  +0.118s 4.  Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda         1m29.192s  +0.118s 5.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha                1m29.235s  +0.161s 6.  Bradley Smith     Tech 3 Yamaha         1m29.652s  +0.578s 7.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati                1m29.691s  +0.617s 8.  Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha         1m29.731s  +0.657s 9.  Colin Edwards     Forward FTR-Kawasaki  1m29.827s  +0.753s10.  Randy de Puniet   Aspar Aprilia         1m29.971s  +0.897s11.  Aleix Espargaro   Aspar Aprilia         1m30.104s  +1.030s12.  Andrea Dovizioso  Ducati                1m30.312s  +1.238s13.  Andrea Iannone    Pramac Ducati         1m30.524s  +1.450s14.  Hector Barbera    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  1m30.701s  +1.627s15.  Danilo Petrucci   Ioda-Suter-BMW        1m30.750s  +1.676s16.  Claudio Corti     Forward FTR-Kawasaki  1m30.909s  +1.835s17.  Yonny Hernandez   Pramac Ducati         1m31.152s  +2.078s18.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  1m31.182s  +2.108s19.  Luca Scassa       Cardion Aprilia       1m31.661s  +2.587s20.  Bryan Staring     Gresini FTR-Honda     1m31.858s  +2.784s21.  Lukas Pesek       Ioda-Suter-BMW        1m32.074s  +3.000s22.  Michael Laverty   PBM Aprilia           1m32.314s  +3.240s23.  Damian Cudlin     PBM-Aprilia           1m33.324s  +4.250s