Phillip Island MotoGP: Jorge Lorenzo stays on top in practice

Though Marc Marquez was fastest by a narrow margin early on, Yamaha rider Lorenzo put in a mid-session 1m29.157s that beat the Honda by nearly three tenths of a second.

Unlike most of his rivals, Lorenzo stuck with the extra-soft Bridgestone front tyre for his best time rather than trying the new asymmetric option.

While Marquez remained second, his team-mate Dani Pedrosa will have to go via Q1 in qualifying on Saturday afternoon as he failed to make it into the top 10 on combined practice times.

Stefan Bradl had battled to make it over the cut-off for much of the session, but he finally managed to put in a good enough lap in the closing minutes.

Pol Espargaro, the man knocked out by Bradl, immediately responded, and that pushed Pedrosa down to 11th.

The Honda rider has been off the pace all weekend, and running into traffic on his penultimate lap didn't help.

Pedrosa stayed 11th, and will therefore notch up the works Honda team's first Q1 appearance of 2014 in qualifying.

Espargaro's last-gasp Q1 escape act brought him up to fifth overall, just ahead of Tech 3 Yamaha team-mate Bradley Smith, and behind Andrea Iannone and Valentino Rossi.

Iannone was furious with himself having crashed his Pramac Ducati at the first corner moments after slotting into what was then second place behind Marquez, only 0.037s adrift of the champion.

Despite that fall ending his morning, Iannone remained third to the end.

That put him five places ahead of the best of the current factory Ducati riders, Cal Crutchlow in eighth.

Andrea Dovizioso, polesitter at Motegi a week ago, hung on to his Q2 spot in 10th but would have been next to be knocked out had Pedrosa managed to improve.