MotoGP Phillip Island, Free Practice 4: Pedrosa ahead of Lorenzo, Rossi fourth

The MotoGP class riders took to the track for the fourth free practice session of Tissot Australian Grand Prix, sixteenth stage of the 2013 world championship, with 24th in the air and 39th on the asphalt.

Given that this morning blistering had occurred on the hard rear tire (made mandatory yesterday after FP2 by Bridgestone, after excessive wear had occurred on the soft compound) (bubbles forming on the tyre) everyone took to the track with the extra-hard rear, which however does not seem to be the definitive solution.

The fastest at the end of this half hour, not valid for the purposes of qualifying, was Dani Pedrosa, who stopped the clock at a time of 1:28.959. The reigning champion Jorge Lorenzo follows, trailing by just 53 thousandths. The ready-to-go Majorcan took a big risk when the rear of his M1 lost grip. Fortunately he managed to keep the bike, but then returned to the pits to work with the team.

Third time for world championship leader Marc Marquez, who puts his Repsol Team Honda RC213V ahead of Valentino Rossi's Yamaha M1, with the latter 454 thousandths off the top.

The Yamaha SATs of Team Tech 3 of Cal Crutchlow and Bradley Smith also performed well, achieving the fifth and sixth times ahead of the Ducati of Nicky Hayden (next year riding the Honda RCV1000R of Team Aspar) and the Honda of Team Gresini of Alvaro Bautista.

The CRTs of Aleix Espargarò and Colin Edwards close the Top Ten. The Italians with the CRTs are Claudio Corti (FTR Kawasaki of the NGM Mobile Team) fourteenth, Danilo Petrucci (Ioda Suter BMW of the Came Iodaracing Team) seventeenth and Luca Scassa (riding the ART of the injured Karel Abraham) nineteenth.

Photos: Alessandro Giberti