Dovizioso delighted with first front row

The Honda rider had never previously qualified in the top three in 43 attempts since the beginning of 2008, but finally put that statistic to bed with a superb late effort at Laguna Seca to rocket up from sixth place.

"Third is very good, because normally I am not so fast [in qualifying]. I am very happy, for sure," he said.

Dovizioso, who out-qualified his Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa for only the third time this year, is confident about his chances in the race and praised the work done by his crew in readying the bike for qualifying.

"All weekend we've been slow, but today we were fast and consistent so I think we can do a good race - although I didn't see what was the pace of Casey [Stoner], Jorge [Lorenzo] and Dani.

"We improved a lot and I'm very happy with the work of the team, but still it was not enough. I'm sure we can do a good job tomorrow."