Pedrosa hopes for set-up improvements

The Spaniard grabbed pole with just one minute remaining in the session ahead of newly-crowned champion Casey Stoner on Marlboro Ducati, with the sister works Honda of Nicky Hayden down in third.

But Pedrosa says his team need to further improve the bike's set-up and the way it uses the tyres in order to win the race.

"I think we still need to find something for the race, because we are trying to make the tyres and the bike set-up work better," Pedrosa told Italia1 television. "Let's hope we'll find those tonight and we'll see if it's enough to win tomorrow. I'd like to do that in front of the fans here."

Asked if he was worried about the tyres often degrading towards the end of the races this year, Pedrosa replied: "Yes, this is always a problem for us. It's 30 laps here; that's a lot with plenty of turns to the left, so let's hope the tyres get to the end of the race well."