Dovizioso sets sights on podium

The 23-year-old Italian equalled the best grid spot of his career at the Losail circuit on what was his first appearance for the factory team. He was 0.7 seconds shy of Casey Stoner's pole position time.

And, after setting the best time of all in the first sector of the lap, and qualifying 0.2s behind the Yamahas of Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo, Dovizioso reckons a podium could well be on the cards - despite Honda's poor testing form.

"It will be difficult," he told Italia 1 TV. "But a podium is our objective, for sure.

"Qualifying is a different story. We were 1.5 seconds off the pace in testing, so we knew we couldn't go for pole. But we've improved a lot and that's important. It's gone very well on race tyres and soft tyres."

Dovizioso, who has had to shoulder all of the pre-season testing work himself since the turn of the year, thanks to injuries to his team-mate Dani Pedrosa, said he thought he could have qualified on the front row.

"On the last lap I did the first sector even better [than anyone else], but then I went wide a bit [at a later corner] so I stopped there.

"I'm very happy with the improvements we've made. I can't wait for the race."