Jorge Lorenzo remains confident that he can fight for victory in the San Marino Grand Prix despite being beaten to pole by title rival Casey Stoner.
Lorenzo and his Yamaha team have found Stoner and Honda hard to match of late, with the world champion having not won since Mugello at the start of July. Stoner has now pulled out a 44-point championship lead over Lorenzo thanks to three successive wins, while Lorenzo could not get on the podium in the last two rounds at Brno and Indianapolis. But after topping afternoon practice at Misano yesterday, Lorenzo was optimistic that Yamaha was going to be in much better shape this weekend, and though he could not deny Stoner an eighth pole of 2011, Lorenzo is determined to take the fight to Honda in the race.
"At least at this track, the problems are solved and we can more or less fight with the Hondas - with Casey and Dani [Pedrosa]," said Lorenzo. "They keep being so fast, so to fight with them you must be at more than 100 per cent."
Lorenzo preferred to remain cautious about his chances of getting ahead of the Hondas over a race distance.
"The race is another story," he said. "There are a lot of laps to do. I think we have good pace and hopefully we can do it tomorrow."