Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa will start on the front row of the Brno grid after finishing third in the first qualifying session after the summer break.
Dani's best time was a close third, a mere 0.046โ behind Valentino Rossi in second and just 0.138โ off his teammate, Marc Marquez, who will start from pole position.
Dani had already displayed a fast pace in the FP3 session, taking P2, despite suffering a crash in the early stages, when he slid out at turn 8 while pushing a little too hard.
With the weather forecast a bit uncertain for today's 2 p.m. race start, Dani remains confident that he'll be ready no matter what the conditions.
โI'm happy ย because qualifying went well,โ he said. โI usually struggle a bit in qualifying but today I did four good laps and I really enjoyed myself, as I was able to ride as I like. I'm just over one tenth off of Marc, which is very positive as he's very strong on pole; it was a fantastic job from my team."
"Now I just look forward to (the race). We have to wait and see what the weather will be like, as that will be a key for the race along with the tyre choice. It should be cooler, so we must be very to the point with the tyre choice and be ready for whatever situation we have to deal with.โ