San Carlo Honda's Marco Simoncelli has complained of being held up by Dani Pedrosa on his fast lap after the small Spaniard joined the track in front of the large-barnetted Italian in today's Aragon MotoGP qualifying session - plus he has fuel consumption issues caused by his extra size and the long straight.

Simoncelli ended up just behind HRC-dole-queue rival Andrea Dovizioso and is on the outside of the front row and he says he could have gone faster if he hadn't been blocked and then made some other, unconnected mistakes on the soft tyres.

“I am sure I could have gone faster but on my best lap I was held up by Pedrosa, who had just come onto the track. It’s a shame, and then I wasn’t quite able to improve on my second soft tyre because of a couple of mistakes," he said.

"The front two are a little way off at the moment but with a couple of small changes to the bike we can be fighting for third place. We have slightly improved the grip issues we encountered yesterday but I think this is a common problem from everybody.

"The thing that is holding us back the most at the moment is fuel consumption because of my size and we need to find something to reduce this problem for the race. I have faith in the guys and I am sure they will do a good job tomorrow.”