However, the 21-year-old Spaniard's best time on a race tyre in the one-hour qualifying session was just two tenths of a second slower than his qualifying time - and came during a run of consistently quick laps - making him a serious victory contender in tomorrow's 30-lap race.
"I'm happy to be on the front row because this is a tight track where it's quite difficult to overtake, so to be up front is going to be important," said the Repsol Honda rider. "Of course it would have been nice to be on pole position like last year, and we came very close, but I'm not disappointed with the result this afternoon.
"This morning was not so good and we tried a few things that didn't immediately improve the machine. However, it helped us find a better direction in the afternoon and I was able to ride at a fast, consistent pace on race tyres, so I think our set-up is quite good - for the beginning of the race at least.
"The critical thing will be how things are going from the mid-point onwards because this is where we have struggled a little in some races. It looks like it's going to be even hotter tomorrow which means it could be hard work in the race because there's not a lot of time to take a rest at this track. Still, I'm looking forward to another good race tomorrow," he concluded.
Valentino Rossi predicts Pedrosa and pole sitter
Casey Stoner to be his toughest opponents on Sunday.
