Despite a high speed crash in the afternoon untimed qualifying, a battered ankle and severe bruising to his shoulders, Corser still took part in Superpole and astounded everybody by setting the second quickest time. The crash took place at a flat-out left hander and Troy was lucky to survive without breaking anything. He got back to the pits as quickly as he could and the Aprilia team immediately set about making the number two bike the same set-up as the one crashed. Troy was in obvious pain, but he still decided the take part in Superpole, which was a 12-lap, fifty minute 'Wet Superpole'. He rode through the pain barrier to complete his allotted laps, and unbelievably led the session until five minutes from the end before being overtaken by Hodgson.

Corser - "I'm well beat up and it was all I could do just to get back on the bike and take part in the Wet Superpole session. The Aprilia team did magnificently to change the spec and set-up of my number two bike like my number one bike. Superpole was a real struggle and when I went out for the final time I was lucky to be able to hang onto the bike. Somehow I managed a good time, but I know I'm going to be real sore tomorrow morning. I'll have some physio tonight at the Clinica Mobile and probably some more in the morning. If I have to have pain-killing injections tomorrow to be able to ride, that's what I'll do. I'll just have to see how I feel in the morning and then try and do my best. This track is very physical and hard on the shoulders because of all the changes of directions, so I know I'm in for a real time of it."

Ruben Xaus put in his best qualifying performance of the year to take third.

"I was really happy after second qualifying because we didn’t touch anything at all on the bike from yesterday and I finished third”, said Xaus. “I’ve managed to set the bike up the way I like it, we had a fantastic tyre for Superpole and I’m looking forward to the race. It’s good being on the front row with all the stars, we ’ll see how it goes tomorrow”

Castrol Honda's Colin Edwards equaled his pole position time of a year ago which was good enough for fourth place as the Texan completes the front row for Sunday's races. Edwards commented: "I've had a problem with front end chatter all day today," admitted Edwards. "If we can get rid of that, which I believe we can, then I'm hopeful of two race wins tomorrow."

He continued: "The new style exhaust doesn't boost power or anything it just gives a smoother feel through the power range and you need that around a circuit as tight and twisty as this. We tested a prototype system at Suzuka, both Tady and me liked it so HRC has produced them for this round."

Ben Bostrom - winner of the last five races - starts from fifth with championship leader Troy Bayliss sixth.

"Despite not being entirely happy with the bike, I was looking forward to Superpole because I wanted to try a different tyre and I reckoned I could have taken another four-tenths of a second off my time” said Bostrom, “but I don’t know why we were so slow, I just can’t explain it. I’m on the second row for tomorrow’s races and I’m planning on getting a really good start so everyone else had better look out.”

Troy Bayliss (Ducati Infostrada) was not too concerned about his fifth-quickest qualifying time as he was sure he could have improved during Superpole after going fastest in the afternoon free practice session. Things didn’t go according to plan however for the 32-year-old Australian, who was unable to make the most of his four timed runs. “I didn’t have a very good second qualifying session because we made a few changes that didn’t help as much as we thought but then in the afternoon we tried a few more things and I was quickest”, declared Bayliss. “I was really looking forward to Superpole but it was a bit of a strange session. We had a few problems on my first run and that sort of made the rest of the hour a bit difficult. I’m not entirely happy with starting from the second row, but I’m always confident and I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s races, whatever the weather”

Corser's Aprilia team-mate Regis Laconi improved on his very final lap, with the chequered flag out, to take seventh while Akira Yanagawa in eighth was the last of the riders to better the existing lap record for the 2.27-mile circuit.

Yanagawa - “My first Superpole lap was perfect. The bike was the best it had been all weekend and I must thank my team for all their efforts. Then I had to start all over again. I was caught in traffic early on in Wet Superpole and as we are only allowed three sets of qualifying tyres I had to rely on my last set. The lap wasn’t perfect, in fact I overshot my braking marker on the back straight and very nearly crashed. This year I haven’t been able to push the bike as much as I would have liked, but today I was on the limit. I’m really confident with the race set-up, and that gives me the best possible chance in tomorrows race.”

Young British Ducati rider James Toseland will start from ninth. 

“I’ve been running strongly all weekend and I feel that I’ve taken to the Oschersleben circuit like a duck to water,” said Toseland. “I think I could have bettered my starting position if Superpole had been a one-lap dash, but fair play to the more experienced guys, they showed me how to do it for next year.”

Lavilla was 12th -  “Today was a little frustrating. We worked really hard on making improvements throughout the day and then it rains for Superpole. We are really strong with our race set-up and the team did everything they could for qualifying. At the moment we need to just focus on not losing confidence in ourselves with twelfth position on the grid. We are learning how to improve the bike all the time and we are moving forward. Last year I was able to finish well from a similar starting position so anything is possible.”

Wollongong's Peter Goddard sits in position number 21 on the grid - “Yesterday's first (practice) session was damp so we changed the suspension settings. The bike set-up wasn't right when it dried out for qualifying later in the day, so we've been trying some different things since then. In qualifying today I fell at the end of the back straight. Something locked up and the back end came around on me. Then we had some sort of electrical problem, so it's been a difficult weekend. We've finished every race in the last couple of rounds, which shows our race-package reliability is improving. Hopefully we can do it again tomorrow. I'm confident we can keep working our way forward and the aim is to score some more championship points. Performance-wise we still need more acceleration, but that will come with Benelli's development program."