Andrea Dovizioso confident in race pace after qualifying on Indianapolis MotoGP front row
Andrea Dovizioso believes he can stay among the lead pack in Sunday's Indianapolis Grand Prix after securing his second front-row start of the 2012 MotoGP season, but suspects polesitter Dani Pedrosa will prove unbeatable
Fresh from four podiums in the last six races and with a 2013 Ducati deal looking increasingly likely, Dovizioso's strong run continued as he qualified third behind Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo at Indianapolis.
The Italian said the front row start came as a pleasant surprise, but that he was confident in his race pace.
"It was really difficult, especially at the beginning on the hard tyre because I found a lot of traffic. It's not so easy to do a good laptime because the grip is so low and you have to be really precise," said Dovizioso. "Also at the end I couldn't improve again because there was a lot of traffic.
"But I am really so happy about the front row. I didn't expect it. My team worked really hard and in a good way, so I'm really confident for the race because especially on the hard tyre we are quite fast. It's really important to start from the first row. "
He admitted that Pedrosa looked like he was a class apart this weekend.
"Tomorrow will be a really hard race. Dani has a special pace," Dovizioso said. "But we'll start there and see what can happen."
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