A stunning four-stroke MotoGP debut from 2002 season rookie Daijiro Kato (Fortuna Honda Gresini RC211V) looked to have been good enough to earn the recent Suzuka 8-Hour winner the right to start from pole position, until a last lap charge from Max Biaggi (Yamaha) deposed him to second. A nonetheless brilliant performance from Kato was underlined by his ability to go faster in each section of qualifying, finishing the final practice day with an excellent 1:59.740, well inside the previous qualifying best and only 0.094 from the eventual pole time.

Kato, who has not had the chance to properly test his new machine, due to Dorna regulations banning any teams from mid season try-outs, was pleasantly surprised by many aspects of his introduction to prototype four-stroke racing. "I am very pleased to have got second qualifying place during my first race on the RCV," he said. "It has meant getting used to different tyre and suspension set-ups and so on but I have found it easier than I imagined it would be. We have been fast even from the first day, and we have made improvements each time we went out. Now I am happy with the race set-up."

Clear World Championship leader Valentino Rossi (Repsol Honda Team RC211V), missed out on a chance to go for pole in the last few seconds, unable to get out of pit lane in enough time to start a final lap at the long Brno circuit. He was nonetheless only the third rider to lap under the two-minute mark, setting a best of 1:59.997.

"We lost some time yesterday looking for ideal settings and we ended up with not enough time to get out of pit lane and set a final fast lap today," confirmed a somewhat rueful Rossi. "We had only two minutes left but that was not enough to let me out and across the line to start another lap. It would have been nice to get pole but third position, on the front row of the grid is not so bad. At the end I am quite happy really."

Loris Capirossi (West Honda Pons NSR500) made his re-entry to the MotoGP class after suffering a wrist injury a fruitful one, setting fifth fastest time on his two-stroke machine. Still not fully fit, the Italian rider had every season to be delighted with his pre-race performance. " I am quite happy with this second day of practice and I have considerably improved my times," said Capirossi. "We still have not made a decision on tyre selection for the race itself, which will be very tough. Regarding my right wrist, aside from the pain, I still need to recover a little bit of flexibility but this will be a question of time."

Eighth place means a second row start for Tohru Ukawa (Repsol Honda Team RC211V) and put all three four-stoke Hondas in the top two echelons after qualifying. The Japanese rider made steady progress with set-up during the weekend, as he explained. "The set-up has been getting better and better and the times show that. We've had some front-end chatter problems, but I think we have cured most of them. I am not too concerned about starting from the second row, because I've started from this position five times already this year. As long as I make a good start it isn't really a big problem."

A disappointing day for Alex Barros (West Honda Pons NSR500) still saw him qualify just inside the top ten, somewhat de-tuned after practice crash. "I am disappointed because I expected to be up at the front of the field," said the Brazilian. "It's clear that the fall I suffered during the morning free practice conditioned all we did this afternoon. I really don't know if it was something on the bike not functioning correctly or if it was simply down to my riding."

Jurgen van den Goorbergh (Kanemoto Racing Honda NSR500) was just over one second from the new pole time, finishing his pre-race work in 13th place, just missing out on a third row start - which may prove important according to the rider himself. "I would rather be one row ahead because you don't know what can happen in the first chicane," said van den Goorbergh. "Our time is not so bad, good enough for the front row I think last year. But this is a very competitive season. I did not quite reach my target lap time of two-minutes flat, but I am still satisfied because it was the maximum I could do."

Tetsuya Harada (Pramac Honda NSR500) had a tough qualifying, finishing an unaccustomedly lowly 17th overall. "We tried to improve my feeling from the bike mid-corner by adjusting the set-up, but without achieving the results we hoped for," explained Harada. "At the end I also used a new Dunlop tyre which we have never tested before, so I did not want to push too hard, just to avoid making a mistake."

Despite a visibly determined last qualifying lap Robby Rolfo (Fortuna Honda Gresini NSR250) could only finish sixth overall and proved to be the highest-placed Honda 250 rider. Fonsi Nieto (Aprilia) earned the 250 pole position again, from Marco Melandri (Aprilia).

Rolfo, who sits third overall in the championship table, knows that the race win is still within his reach. "I am not so satisfied with my place on the grid, but in terms of my lap times and rhythm I can be confident for tomorrow. I think the prize will go to the most consistent. It will be very important to stay with the leaders from the beginning and then we will see what happens."

RS250R/W Honda rider Haruchika Aoki (Arie Molenaar Racing) was the next best Honda rider, 12th, on a track where a perfect set-up often proves elusive. Next quickest private Honda proved to be that belonging to Jason Vincent (By Queroseno Racing Honda RS250R/W). Vincent finished practice in 14th place, aided by some hard work finding suitable settings during qualifying.

Emilio Alzamora (Fortuna Honda Gresini NSR250) misses the Brno race after recovering from surgery and his replacement David Garcia had a troubled time in practice, finishing 17th. "It is a pity I crashed this morning," confessed Garcia, "because it lost us a lot of track time and that made it difficult to find a good set-up. I would like to take this opportunity to say hello to my friend Emilio, who has helped me to prepare for this race."

Daniel Pedrosa (Telefonica Movistar Jr Team Honda RS125R) proved to be the fastest Honda rider on show at Brno, scoring a front row start with his third place on the grid. His qualifying time of 2:09.000 was under the previous qualifying lap record. The young Spaniard, currently third in the overall championship rankings, will be hoping to replicate his Assen form in Brno and take his second race win of the season.

Said Pedrosa after the usual close qualifying session, one which proved to be fraught with problems for him: "During the morning we thought we had found the answer to our rear suspension problems, but in the afternoon they came back and we still don't know why. It's nothing new. We'll try again in morning warm up to find settings that give me more confidence when I open the gas. I will try to be in the leading group during a race that will for sure be very long."

New qualifying lap record holder Alex De Angelis and Simone Sanna (both Aprilia) will start ahead of Pedrosa, with the next best Honda rider being Hungary's Gabor Talmacsi (Pev Moto ADAC Sachsen Honda RS125R) who finished 11th overall. Just behind, Pedrosa's team-mate Joan Olive (Telefonica Movistar Jr Team Honda RS125R), took the final place on the third row, 12th.

Also struggling with rear suspension settings, Olive praised Pedrosa's efforts to aid his set-up. "Dani helped me a lot trying to get a time, and I will start from the third row. That's OK, but here the start will be very important."

HONDA TEAM QUOTES - MotoGP

Daijiro Kato, Fortuna Honda Gresini, 2nd: "From yesterday the situation has further improved: the RC211V is a fantastic machine and my feeling on the bike is better each time I go out onto the track, after only 24 hours I already understand a lot more about the machine. I'm not too sorry to lose pole, Biaggi is always really fast here at Brno and the most important thing for me is the race and not a record lap. Tomorrow the race will be a difficult fight, however, I'll sleep well. I don't have a prediction for the race but sure I'll fight for a top position."

Fausto Gresini: "I'm so happy to live at such an extraordinary moment: I didn't think that it was possible to be so competitive in such a short time. Kato rode very well, and he is fast without effort, he's a great champion. I don't care about the lost pole position: maybe we'll have less pressure on us. Now we need to be calm. For the race I'm optimistic, I think that Daijiro will be with the lead group, I think the only problem will be tyre choice. We will decide that in the warm up tomorrow. However, a debut like this could seem to be a dream but it's a reality! The RC211V is without doubt a fantastic bike."

Valentino Rossi, Repsol Honda Team: 3rd: "At the end I am quite happy really. I am close to Kato and Biaggi which is OK. Third position and on the first row will do fine. We lost some time yesterday searching for the best settings. Today we have been working hard to find the best race set-up, which I am happy with. In the end we ran out of time to make that last big push for the pole position. I could see the circuit clock said 3 minutes but it has no seconds. There were really just over 2 minutes left so I had no time."

Loris Capirossi, West Honda Pons: 5th: "I am quite happy with my performance during this second day of practice as I have considerable improved my times. I think that we have found a good setting for the bike, although I must work hard to get the best out of my bike. We still have not made a decision on tyre selection for the race itself, which will be very tough. Regarding my right wrist, apart from the pain, I still need to recover a little more flexibility but this will be a question of time."

Tohru Ukawa, Repsol Honda Team: 8th: "The bike set-up has been getting better and better all weekend and the times show that. We've had some front end chatter problems but I think we have cured most of it with the set-up. I'm really not too concerned about starting from the second row. I've started from this position five times already this season and as long as I make a good start it really isn't a big problem."

Alex Barros, West Honda Pons: 10th: "I am disappointed because I expected to be up at the front of the field. It's clear that the fall I suffered during the morning's free practice conditioned all our work in the afternoon. I really do not know if there was something in the bike that was not functioning correctly or if it was simply down to my riding. Anyway we must look over everything to put our minds at rest and I hope to be in top form for the race."

Sito Pons: "After two month's absence through injury, Loris has demonstrated exactly the kind of rider he is, and it is clear that he has followed an intensive rehabilitation programme over the summer. For us it is very important that he is back on the track and to see him up amongst the leaders again is a tremendous source of satisfaction. Meanwhile, Alex's fall during this morning's practice caused him to have some doubts in the bike's settings and lose some confidence, but he has the ability to get over it immediately and tomorrow he will be ready to put in another great performance."

Jurgen van den Goorbergh, Kanemoto Honda, 13th: "I'm not unhappy with my position. My time today would have seen me on the front row last year! We changed a few things on the rolling chassis last night, and again improved from he morning free practice session and they helped a lot, particularly with tyre performance. I have a little front end chatter right now, if we fix it I'm pretty sure I will run in thee 2m 02s bracket in the race, at worst low 2m 03s. Of course I'm still not happy with that time, but step by step we are getting there."

Team owner - manager Erv Kanemoto: "That was better, the changes we made certainly worked. The tyres are definitely better with the set-up we ran today. We have a couple of more slight changes to make to the set-up before the warm-up, mainly to get rid of the front-end chatter. If we get it right it will be an interesting day tomorrow. It's hard to believe that 16 guys went faster today than last year's lap record, two and four-stroke machines. We are definitely looking forward to the race. If we hold the momentum we've built up over the last two days, and the weather holds, we'll run well."

Tetsuya Harada, Team Pramac Honda: 17th: "Trying to improve the feeling of my bike in the corners we have modified the set up of the setting without achieving the results we hoped. We have been forced to use yesterday's regulations but we lost too much time. At the end I also used a new Dunlop tyre never tested before so I prefer not to push hard for avoiding any mistake."