MotoGP title contender Dani Pedrosa continued to set the pace in Saturday morning’s final practice session for the Japanese Grand Prix. The Honda rider led championship leader Jorge Lorenzo and his team-mate Ben Spies at Motegi, with the returning Casey Stoner seventh behind Britain’s Cal Crutchlow.
As the lap times continued to fall, Pedrosa was the only man to break through the 1:46.000 barrier and set the pace with 1:45.792. This was a comfortable three tenths of a second quicker than Lorenzo, although the Mallorcan can still easily win this year’s title be finishing second to Pedrosa in the remaining races.
With practically the entire field electing for a tyre combination of hard front and soft rear, Andrea Dovizioso again displayed promising speed and was still quicker than Tech 3 team partner Cal Crutchlow; the pair were split by the Gresini of Álvaro Bautista, which moved into the top five. Valentino Rossi, reigning Moto2 Champion Stefan Bradl and Nicky Hayden rounded out the first ten for Ducati and LCR Honda.
Aleix Espargaró took the agricultural line twice as he suffered off-track excursions, but still led the CRT battle from 11th place. Aspar team-mate Randy de Puniet was 15th overall and second for CRT honours as Michele Pirro suffered technical issues.
Qualifying begins at 1:55pm local time (BST +8)
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| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  D. Pedrosa | Repsol Honda | 01:45.792 | 19 |
| 2. | J. Lorenzo | Yamaha | 01:46.057 | 19 |
| 3. | B. Spies | Yamaha | 01:46.138 | 20 |
| 4. | A. Dovizioso | Tech 3 | 01:46.220 | 19 |
| 5. | A. Bautista | Gresini | 01:46.354 | 19 |
| 6. | C. Crutchlow | Tech 3 | 01:46.436 | 19 |
| 7. | C. Stoner | Repsol Honda | 01:46.480 | 16 |
| 8. | V. Rossi | Ducati | 01:46.641 | 20 |
| 9. | S. Bradl | LCR Honda | 01:47.028 | 18 |
| 10. | N. Hayden | Ducati | 01:47.240 | 19 |
| Full results | ||||
| Dani Pedrosa | |||
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