Misano MotoGP: Dani Pedrosa predicts tough race

Dani Pedrosa expects a tough fight in tomorrow’s Misano MotoGP race after he comfortably claimed his fourth pole position of the season.

The Repsol Honda rider’s best time of 1.33.948 beat compatriot and title rival Jorge Lorenzo by 0.308s as Pedrosa seeks a second win in a week after his runaway success in Indianapolis last weekend.

Pedrosa, who is looking to reduce Lorenzo’s healthy 68-point lead in the championship by winning back-to-back MotoGP races for the first time in his career, said: “If you look at the lap times then probably it will be a close race. But we have to focus because it is a very long race and it will be important to be quick and not make any mistakes.

“I’m happy to be on pole position because we were strong throughout practice and things have gone according to plan so far this weekend. We are doing a very good job at the moment, improving at every round and now we have the chance to have another good race.

“I’ve never won two MotoGP races in a row and this is a good challenge for me – I really want to go for it. Today went well especially because this was a very tight qualifying session and, as I said yesterday, it was crucial to be on the first row of the grid to have the best chance of getting through the first corners cleanly, because they are very tight.

“It’s a quite a tricky circuit and tomorrow it will be important not to make any mistakes – particularly on the brakes – in order to keep a high pace for the whole race distance. I think it will be very difficult to make a gap, but we’ll wait and see what t he strategy is for the race.”