Pedrosa fears he will fall back in race

The Spaniard had been third behind the Yamahas for most of the weekend, and was as low as sixth as the end of qualifying approached.

He then dug deep on his final qualifying run to leap up to provisional pole, and although he was then beaten by Rossi, Pedrosa managed to hang on for second place.

But although he was very pleased with his grid position, Pedrosa fears he will be unable to stay up there in the race.

"We have to work a little bit more on race pace," he admitted. "This afternoon we were not quite fast before we put a qualifying time in. This is an important thing for tomorrow's race."

Pedrosa said he knew he had to produce a spectacular qualifying lap at the end of the session because he thought it would be impossible to come through the field from a lower grid spot at the twisty Misano track.

"At the end I just tried to be faster because I think being on the front row at this track is important," he said.

"In the end it's good to be second. Other than that, we have to improve a little bit. But I'm quite confident."