Pedrosa surprised by second place

The Repsol Honda rider was disappointed to qualify eighth for the season opener at Qatar earlier this month and was pleased to see the team make a step forward for his home race.

"We didn't expect to be on the front row because Qatar was a big disaster in qualifying, but it's very important here so we're happy about second spot," he said.

"We've made a step but we are still far from the fastest time. Lorenzo's laptime was unbelievable so we have to improve the bike, the tyre, and my riding."

Pedrosa played down his hopes of winning tomorrow's race and wants to focus on making his bike consistent over a race distance.

"Let's hope tomorrow we can have a bike we like all the way to the end of the race. It's hard because we didn't test and we're still behind the fastest guys, but we will just do our best and try to find something more on the bike."