In yet another blistering display of one-lap pace the 22-year-old took his fourth pole in successive races to give him the ideal starting position for tomorrow's 30-lap main event.

But the Spaniard is yet to win any of the previous races he has started from pole this year, and has never won at home as a MotoGP rider - something he aims to change on Sunday, as the Repsol Honda rider seeks his second victory of an often difficult 2007 season.

"Well, I'm very happy to be on pole position again - and especially here in front of my home fans because I really want to give them a good result.There are already many people here looking for Spanish success and tomorrow I'm sure there will be even more," said Dani, who can claim second in the world championship if he wins and Valentino Rossi fails to score on Sunday.

"We must try to improve our machine settings further and find that little bit extra for the race because the lap times are still very close and we cannot relax at all," warned Pedrosa, who pipped world champion Casey Stoner by 0.086secs. "Thirty laps makes it a long race and tyre choice will be critical of course to give us the best chance of maintaining our pace right until the end. The practice was positive this afternoon and I was able to go fast on race tyres as well. The weekend has gone well so far and I hope I can make a good start and challenge for the win tomorrow."