Honda's Japanese hot shot Makoto Tamada starts Sunday's fourth round of the World Superbike championship from pole position after setting the fastest lap in Saturday afternoon's Superpole final qualifying competition at the Sugo circuit in Japan.

Tamada, 24, making his debut on factory machinery, was in devastating form as he powered to a time of 1m 28.797s, slower than his fastest lap on Friday but still 0.8s inside the existing Sugo circuit lap record.

Hitoyasu Izutsu, last year's double race winner at Sugo, starts alongside his fellow-countryman after the Kawasaki rider took second, with Troy Corser taking third.  

Corser - "My first target was the first row, above all on this track where the first three turn after the green-light are so important." said Troy "If you are ahead, with a lot of space and a good lap times, you can aspire to victory.  During the Superpole flying lap I tried to be careful because the priority was the first row, and was not worthwhile taking the risk. The bike was OK, on here if you have not got a good bike set-up you can't really ride as well.  Everything is working fine for tomorrow, now we have to think hard about the race strategy. An important round, I would like to score as many points as possible to reach Monza leading the Championship again." 

Ben Bostrom put in his best lap of the weekend to complete the front row in fourth place.  “I was sure I could set a 29.5 and I did”, said Bostrom, “but then I looked back at all the mistakes I made on that lap and wanted to do another one! The tyres were good, the team did a great job and I’m really happy to be on the front row for tomorrow”.

Tamada's Cabin Honda team-mate, Shinichi Ito, set the fifth best Superpole time to lead a second row which includes British Ducati rider Neil Hodgson.

The current British Superbike Champion also recorded the fastest speed in each session on his GSE Ducati today - the quickest was 233.7 km/h, set during the second qualifying session.

“Everything is coming together and the bike is just fantastic,” said the 27-year-old. “The team has done a great job to prepare the bike for this circuit and we are all confident that we have the right set-up for tomorrow’s races. I made a mistake on my Superpole lap, which cost me a front row start. I was just trying too hard. But I’m feeling good about tomorrow and I’m really pleased with the performance of the Dunlop tyres."

Also on the second row is Akira Yanagawa - a race winner at Sugo in 1997 and 1999 - and defending world champion Colin Edwards on his Castrol Honda.

"We always knew it would be difficult here," admitted Edwards. "But what's happened today and yesterday may not mean anything for tomorrow's races. I'm happy that we've got the best settings and Michelin tyres and I'll be giving it everything." 

Two more Japanese round wild card riders, Tamaki Serizawa and Akira Ryo complete the top 10 for Sunday's two 25-lap races. 

Regis Laconi is 12th on the grid - "I could be satisfied enough, today during the Superpole I reach my personal best time in this two days at Sugo, we worked a lot on bike set-up finding good solution. I'm tranquil even if the race will be not so easy, moreover on a circuit like this one where it is difficult to overtake. To tell the truth there are not special parts of this track where is possible to delay the brake, so you have to ride clean and fond some good slipstream."

Castrol Honda's Tady Okada will start from 16th place after a disappointing Superpole lap.

Championship leader Troy Bayliss (Ducati Infostrada) failed to qualify for Superpole after struggling with grip on his 996R Factory all weekend. The 32 year-old Australian was 17th quickest, but with two minutes remaining, the red flags came out when Ulm crashed and Bayliss was unable to improve in the little time remaining. This is the first time the Australian has failed to qualify for Superpole since making his Ducati Corse debut exactly twelve months ago at this circuit. Bayliss then made some progress in the afternoon ’s free practice session when he went faster on race tyres than he did all weekend in qualifying.

Team-mate Ruben Xaus (Ducati Infostrada) was one place lower in the timesheets, but the 23 year-old Spanish rider gradually improved during the session before ending up in the gravel under braking at the first corner. Xaus was then unable to get the right feeling with his second 996R Factory and remained excluded from Superpole.

Ducati Corse Chief Engineer Corrado Cecchinelli summed up the weekend’s performance: ”Although Troy and Ruben are starting behind on the grid, we improved our race pace. We also improved from yesterday but over the weekend we have just been unable to get the best out of qualifying. Ben was fantastic, he rode that Superpole lap just like the Japanese! He was able to make the best of a good qualifying tyre and did his quickest lap of the weekend during Superpole, which shows that he was really focused and that the bike is good”.