Lorenzo hopes to challenge Pedrosa

Pedrosa was fastest by 0.6 seconds on Friday then took pole by 0.3s over Lorenzo today.

But having been unhappy with his Yamaha's handling yesterday, Lorenzo was more content after qualifying, and though he is convinced that Pedrosa's Honda has a power advantage, he is upbeat about his chances in race trim.

"We have improved in every practice, so I'm confident for the result tomorrow. We have good pace," said Lorenzo. "Unfortunately we didn't take so much profit from the soft tyre [in qualifying].

"But anyway, our bike is not the fastest [on the straights], but I think we can make better speed in the corners, so we have motivation for tomorrow."

While Pedrosa has been the man to beat so far this weekend, he was cautious about his prospects for the race. He said he had given it everything in qualifying as he was anxious to be ahead of any potential trouble at the tight first corners.

"At the end of the session I was of course trying to get some good lap time because I know how tight the first two corners are, you don't want to get involved in something, so it was important to be on the front row," said Pedrosa.

"But we have to still work on the race set-up and I hope we can get some improvement for tomorrow."