M1 project leader Ichiro Yoda attributed the bike's ever-improving pace to painstaking work on chassis development, undertaken since a modified chassis arrived for the Czech GP. "We worked hard with Carlos and Max during our tests after the Brno race, trying to find the right way forward with the new chassis," explained Yoda. "Finally we found the right way and we've continued fine-tuning in that direction here. The positive point of the new chassis is front-end feeling, which both riders discovered at Brno, but we had some rear-end set-up difficulties there which we've fixed here. This is the bumpiest GP track of all and it's not so grippy either. I think the M1's engine-braking system helps our riders going into turns over the bumps, the bike looks smoother than some, but that also comes from rear-suspension settings. There's not much grip here but the M1 isn't doing so bad because it's quite friendly with its tyres, which we've already seen at Brno."

Marlboro Yamaha Team director Davide Brivio added: "It's quite ironic that Carlos should get his first pole with the M1 here, because we had our most difficult pre-season tests here in February. So thanks again to everyone involved including Michelin."

Carlos Checa scored his first pole position since Jerez 1998 at Estoril today, outpacing the MotoGP competition aboard his Marlboro Yamaha Team M1 in the most difficult of conditions. A brief downpour soaked the track a few minutes before the start of this afternoon's final session and it wasn't until the last 15 minutes that the surface had dried enough to allow riders to go on the attack, aiming to better their times from yesterday's dry session. With 13 minutes to go Checa moved up to third, then went fastest with three minutes to go and went faster still on his final lap to end the day 0.075 seconds up on Daijiro Kato (Honda).

"I'd been out earlier when the track was still too wet," said the delighted Spaniard after scoring his second premier-class pole. "There wasn't much time left when the surface was dry enough, so it was a bit like a Formula One qualifying session, we had so little time, just your out lap, then go for it, you couldn't waste your chances. I was concentrating at my maximum, focusing myself towards doing as perfect a lap as possible and I didn't make any mistakes on my best laps. These weren't easy conditions for the team, so I think the main reason we got pole was because the team, the bike and me worked well together, so I'd like to offer a big thank you to everyone working with me. We lost our way at the last two races and now I have a nice feeling with the bike once again, it's going really well. Now it 's important that we analyse the data from today and fight for victory tomorrow."

Max Biaggi ended final qualifying fifth fastest, less than four tenths of a second off pole. Pole sitter at June's Catalan GP and winner and pole sitter at Brno, Biaggi hasn't been able to get his Marlboro Yamaha Team M1 set up quite to his liking around this awkward and challenging racetrack but is hoping for further improvements in tomorrow morning's warm-up session.

"First of all, my compliments to Carlos, he did a great job today," said Biaggi, who's Brno pole was the 50th of his career. "There's no doubt that we are more competitive now but I've been struggling to find a really good feeling here. The new chassis does feel better but at the moment the front's too light, so we still have a lot of things to fix. It's important that we find a good set-up in warm-up and then I'll try my best in the race."

Daijiro Kato, MotoGP's newest candidate for victory, ended today's session a close second fastest and just ahead of World Championship leader Valentino Rossi (Honda). "We had a good test at Valencia last week, so I'm happy with the bike," said Kato. "We had rear-grip problems yesterday but today was much better." Rossi announced himself satisfied with third: "The bike had been difficult to stop, but we solved that today."

-----   Red Bull   -----

Only 0.077 seconds separates the Red Bull Yamaha Team Mates, John Hopkins and Garry McCoy who line up side by side on the grid tomorrow for the 11th Round of the Moto GP World Championship at Estoril, Portugal.

The Red Bull duo are the only Yamaha two-stroke riders to improve on their times from the first qualifying session on Friday and today, are the fastest two-stroke Yamaha's on the circuit.

McCoy who has stood on the podium here in the last 2 consecutive Grands Prix is disappointed with his 4th row start but as we know the 30 year old Australian has the ability, experience and grit to fight his way through to the leading pack.

Hopkins is focusing on another strong start after his lightning bolt leap off the grid in Brno and this fit young American is sure to impress us all again tomorrow."

John Hopkins ­ 15th ­ 1m41.092 - "Overall I'm disappointed with my result today even though I bettered my time from yesterday. My crew have worked hard overnight to make some improvements to the bike and I'm aiming tomorrow to get a top ten result.  I'm going out there to do the best I can and go for it."

"I've got a good tyre for the race and Dunlop and my team are confident with what we are going with. I really only had about a 10- 15 minute opportunity today to put on a good time toward the end of the session. The track dried out but it still felt a lot slicker then yesterday."

Colin Davies ­ Race Engineer for John Hopkins - "If we had the full session today I'm sure that we could of found a few more tenths of a second, which would of put John further up the grid tomorrow, but he continues to improve here, as he has done all season."

Garry McCoy ­ 16th ­ 1.41.169 - "The bike set-up felt alright this afternoon and we tried some tyres today that we didn't get a chance to try yesterday and they seemed okay. I really did not get enough laps during the qualifying and I'm sure I could have gone a bit quicker but with the rain at the beginning we just ran out of time. This morning in the practice again I did not get enough laps in, but considering this, the bike still seems pretty good for tomorrow."

Christophe Bourguignon (Race Engineer -Garry McCoy) - "The weather conditions really have effected us and we really still don't know about the race tyre for tomorrow. We only had 16 laps that session and we needed more."

Peter Clifford ­ Director of Racing - "Not the huge overnight improvement we were looking for. John was the fastest two-stroke Yamaha today and Garry the second fastest. Enough said."