MotoGP Phillip Island, Free Practice 3: Pedrosa in the lead, Marquez still down, Rossi third

Dani Pedrosa was the fastest in the third free practice session of the MotoGP class Tissot Australian Grand Prix, third to last stage of the 2013 world championship. The Repsol Honda Team rider, winner last week in Sepang, stopped the clock at a time of 1:29.074, a time which allowed him to precede his team-mate by just 48 thousandths Marc Marquez, who will be competing here tomorrow (which will start at 7am Italian time) will have the first match point to clinch the title.

However, the world championship leader crashed at the hairpin, thus repeating yesterday's crash. The riders took to the track to test the hard rear tyre, which Bridgestone "forced" to use due to the deterioration of the soft one.

Behind the duo of the Repsol Honda Team we find our Valentino Rossi, just 118 thousandths of a second, who preceded the excellent Alvaro Bautista on the Honda RC213V of Team Gresini, (the only bike from the company with the golden wing to use Showa suspension) and the team- mate Jorge Lorenzo, who with the time recorded yesterday remains the fastest of the three free practice sessions.

Bradley Smith also did well, placing himself behind the Ducati of Nicky Hayden and his teammate Cal Crutchlow with the sixth fastest time. The CRTs of Colin Edwards and Randy de Puniet close the Top Ten, followed by Aleix Espargarò.

Twelfth and thirteenth times for Andrea Dovizioso and Andrea Iannone, on Ducati, while the Italians with the CRTs are Danilo Petrucci, fifteenth. Claudio Corti, sixteenth and Luca Scassa, nineteenth.