"I'm so happy. Finally, I have got Pole position and it wasn't so hard. The conditions were very hard today and the changes in the weather made life very difficult for me and the team. I'm happy with my Suzuki's set-up for both wet and dry conditions, but I hope we don't have a race which is half wet and half dry - that's not good. I'm particularly happy to be Pole, considering my heavy crash last week at Oschersleben. The Team Suzuki Alstare physio has done a lot of work with me and his massages have really helped me a lot. At the start of the week I felt really sore, but he has made it easier for me to ride the bike and today I think I deserved my Pole position." commented the Japanese Suzuki rider.

Fujiwara is joined on the front row by Ten Kate Honda's Pere Riba with championship leader Paolo Casoli third and 19-year-old Italian Suzuki rider Vittorio Iannuzzo fourth.

Karl Muggeridge was one of the few riders to improve on his lap time as he moved into fifth place on the grid by virtue of his fastest lap in the first five minutes of the session, before the rain fell.

“This morning in free practice we had a mixed session, wet at the beginning and then it dried up towards the end. So we worked a little bit on the wet set-up, which came up pretty good. Then after the track dried, we worked on the dry and were also able to test unlike yesterday were it wasn’t possible, since we lost about half a session in the afternoon due to the technical problems." said Muggas.

"This afternoon we were just praying for some good weather in the qualifying. It was dry in the beginning, then a little bit wet and then dry again before it started pouring down. So we tried the tyres that we needed. The softer tyres got the bike handling a little bit better and minimised the chatter problem that we had at the beginning. Now the bike is ok, we will change the gearbox for tomorrow, which should be better. I think we were just fortunate enough to get some dry weather and the bike’s going well here. Hopefully we can have a good result tomorrow in dry conditions!” he concluded.

Andrew Pitt, Casoli's nearest rival in the championship, will start from sixth.  "The weather seems to be changing every few minutes, with rain and wind gusts. It's the same for everyone so you just have to get on with it. When today's (qualifying) session started it was dry, but it looked like it might rain. I went out on a race tyre and did four laps. Then I came in and put a 'qualifying' tyre on the bike. We got held up by a slower rider when I was going for a fast lap, so I went back to the pits for another tyre. It was starting to spit and on my first lap the rain came down big-time. I wanted to be on the front row, but considering the weather and everything then we're still in a reasonable position. The cross winds are picking up the front of the bike, especially through the fast left-hander before the chicane leading onto the front straight. We've made some improvements to the suspension since yesterday, and the bike now feels better balanced when you're making high-speed changes of direction. I feel pretty confident about our race package around here, and Dunlop have a good race tyre. Scott (Breedin) seems to be getting better. He took a big hit, but things could have been a lot worse."

Frenchman Christophe Cogan seventh and BKM Honda's Kevin Curtain - winner of the two wet weather races this year - completing the second row in eighth.

Iain MacPherson, the Assen lap record holder, will start from ninth with veteran Fabrizio Pirovano improving on his Friday time for 10th.

Riba's team-mate and race winner in Germany last week, Fabien Foret, starts from 20th with Alpha Technik's Adam Fergusson 21st and Castrol Honda's Chris Vermeulen 22nd. British rider Steve Plater will start from 25th on his Alpha Technik Honda with BKM Honda's Cristiano Migliorati 26th.