Having narrowly lost out on pole position to Repsol Honda team-mate Casey Stoner,
Dani Pedrosa looks to have a strong chance of repeating his 2011 Estoril
MotoGP victory on Sunday.
The Spaniard has been fast all weekend, leading Saturday morning practice and getting within 0.013s of Stoner in qualifying - despite technical issues.
"I think we did a good job in qualifying and to be on the front row here after all the issues we had is a great thing,” said Pedrosa. “I couldn't put too many good laps together because I had some problems on the bike, first with the brakes, then with the electronics and by the end I was feeling good but we had to stop again due to the red flag.
“I honestly think that in the last minutes of the session I could have taken the pole but there was a lot of traffic and I missed it by just 0.013. The race will be very tough tomorrow because the track conditions are poor, the grip is low and it makes the tyres spin a lot.
“We will try to set up our bike a little better for tomorrow to do our best in the race".
Tech 3 Yamaha's Cal Crutchlow will line-up alongside fast-starting Pedrosa on the front row.