and so the hell what if the relationship goes to crap? she's not the only girl and you won't be missing anything at all dude, really. if you want to "be" with her and you're not, then why screw it all up with emotions and feelings and all that.
a true friend (even though this sounds funny) would try to see if his feelings would go anywhere and not weird out the friendship afterwards if she rejected him. At least that's the feeling I get when girls are fed up of guys pretending to be their friends only in the end to have wanted sex.
I'd honestly just get to know each other and try to take it somewhere, if it don't go anywhere then what comes next is up to you.
but really never put importance on a new friendship or even a long one. I find sometimes the other person won't even give a crap cuz my ex friend was being stupid and threw away a good friendship.
so it's your choice mate, but i'd suggest just not feeling guilty if you are and just try going for it. don't do it all cheesy and nervous like, just know that it's not the end of the world if she goes "whoa, what are you doing?" Cuz i find girls won't tell you anything until you make the move. They'll usually not tell you to make the move either, so keep that in mind. It's all about having the balls to take a chance.
good luck