Pedrosa clocks fastest time

ALCANIZ, Spain — Spanish rider Dani Pedrosa continued his fine form by beating out Honda teammate and MotoGP world championship leader Marc Marquez to the fastest time in practice for Sunday's Aragon Grand Prix Friday. Pedrosa claimed his first victory of a wide-open season in San Marino two weeks ago, becoming a record eighth different winner in the last eight races in the process. The 30-year-old pipped Marquez by just 0.065sec with a best time of 1min 48.429sec in the second practice session Friday afternoon. Britain's Cal Crutchlow was third with Marquez's closest championship rival Valentino Rossi fourth. Defending champion Jorge Lorenzo, who has won in Aragon, Spain for the past two seasons, was only seventh fastest, 0.485sec back. Italy's Andrea Iannone, winner of the Austrian Grand Prix last month, pulled out of the race after the first practice session citing pain from a micro-fracture in his back when he crashed in practice for the San Marino Grand Prix. Marquez holds a comfortable 43-point lead over Valentino Rossi with just five races of the season to go. Lorenzo is 18 points further back. The riders have two more practice sessions before qualifying Saturday. "It's a very hard decision," Iannone told reporters after setting the sixth fastest time of the opening session at the MotorLand Aragon circuit. "I'm not how I would like to be. "The feeling with the bike was good but doing 23 race laps would be very difficult...I have a lot of pain after three or four consecutive laps." Ducati said Italian test rider Michele Pirro, who finished seventh at Misano as a stand-in, will also replace him for Sunday's race. — AFP