Andrew Pitt clocked a best lap of 1-min 37-381-secs on his Kawasaki Racing Team ZX-6R around the 4km Donington Park circuit where he finished a creditable fourth in his race debut in the 2000 championship round.

He was 1.065-secs behind the pole position-winning Dienza Ducati of Italian Vittoriano Guareschi, who recorded the quickest lap of 1-min 36.316-secs. The top 18 qualifiers were separated by less than a second in lap times.

Pitt said he was extremely disappointed with his qualifying position at Donington Park. He has qualified in the top 10 only once in five rounds this year. However, he has performed superbly in the past three races, charging through the field to finish third in Australia and Japan, and fourth in Italy.

Championship leader Paolo Casoli of Italy, who is eight points clear of Pitt, qualified second at Donington Park on a Belgarda Yamaha, followed by Alstare Corona Suzuki team-mates Karl Muggeridge of Australia and Japan's Katsuaki Fujiwara.

“The track condition this afternoon was not so good, I think due to the side-car’s coming out before our final qualifying, they leave different kind of rubber or maybe oil down the track." said Muggas "There was just no grip out there. The bike was behaving a little bit strange this afternoon: not like this morning where it was perfect and I was really happy with it. We haven’t done any major changes but it just didn’t come together in the final session. There were a lot of people coasting around the track getting in everyone’s way and trying to get a tow of everyone, it was really frustrating. Anyway, we will leave the same set-up for tomorrow, try it in the morning and go to the race. I mean we know it works, so it should be ok.”

Andrew Pitt rode a total of 114 laps on his Dunlop-shod machine in the two practice sessions and two qualifying sessions at Donington Park over the past two days.

"We've been having a bad run in qualifying so this weekend we were determined to do better and get closer up the front. Once again it hasn't happened. Right at the end of the session I was on a good lap that might have put me on the second row, but I got held up in the last corner by a couple of riders who getting ready to come into the pits. It's a frustrating situation qualifying so far back because on race day we've been on the pace everywhere. I'm making things hard for myself, but I've got to put it out of my mind and get on with the job. I'll probably run a soft tyre because I'm going to need all the grip I can get in the first few laps to try and make up positions. That's what I did in the last race at Monza (Italy), and I was able to catch the front guys at the end. In practice here I've done a lot of laps close to my qualifying time, so if I get a decent start things should be okay. Our biggest problem this weekend is the gearbox – we can't change the internal ratios and we're hitting the rev-limiter in a few places because this year's engine has more power. In a perfect world we'd use last year's gearbox, but we can't. Our straight-line speed seems competitive – in practice I was able to pass (James) Whitham on the Yamaha. The track seems a little more slippery than last year, and more bumpy."

QUALIFYING TIMES (Final - starting grid positions):
1. Vittoriano Guareschi (Italy) Dienza Ducati 1:36.316
2. Paolo Casoli (Italy) Belgarda Yamaha 1:36.385
3. Karl Muggeridge (Australia) Alstare Corona Suzuki 1:36.553
4. Katsuaki Fujiwara (Japan) Alstare Corona Suzuki 1:36.573
5. Karl Harris (GB) Crescent Suzuki 1:36.650
6. Pere Riba (Spain) Ten Kate Honda 1:36.662
7. Fabrizio Pirovano (Italy) DMR Racing Suzuki 1:36.747
8. Jorg Teuchert (Germany) Wilbers Suspension Yamaha 1:36.798
9. Stefano Cruciani (Italy) Lorenzini by Leonie Yamaha 1:36.935
10. Fabien Foret (France) Ten Kate Honda 1:36.946
OTHERS:
14. Kevin Curtain (Australia) BKM Racing Honda 1:37.047
18. Dean Thomas (Australia) Dienza Ducati 1:37.195
19. Andrew Pitt (Australia) Kawasaki Racing Team 1:37.381
23. Adam Fergusson (Australia) Alpha Technik Castrol Honda 1:37.662
26. Chris Vermeulen (Australia) Castrol Honda 1:37.951
32. Shannon Johnson (Australia) Moto 1 Honda 1:39.549