Honda: Pedrosa can win the race

Pedrosa has gradually picked up speed as he acclimatised to his new tyres in recent races, and finished on the podium in Japan last weekend.

Although the Spaniard only qualified on the second row at Phillip Island, Yamano reckons his race pace is good enough for the win after productive changes in practice and qualifying.

"Both the rider and the machine have improved during today's two sessions," said Yamano.

"He has a very good race pace and his target is victory. We are expecting a tough battle because there are many competitive riders with a similar race pace."

Pedrosa agreed that he was making progress with the race-specification Bridgestones, and admitted that his low-key qualifying result was down to his riding rather than the tyres or set-up.

"On the race tyres, I think I improved," he told the official MotoGP website. "Regarding qualifying, the tyre was quite good and I enjoyed the performance, but I couldn't make a good lap time. This time it was my fault, and I feel not so good about this point. But I'm still in sixth position."

However he was less confident than Yamano about his prospects of challenging for victory.

"It depends a lot on the track temperature," said Pedrosa. "But I hope I can improve a little bit more."