Biaggi retained his second place on the grid from yesterday, unable to attack pole sitter Daijiro Kato (Honda) after his number-one bike suffered a minor glitch in the final stages of the session. Meanwhile Checa had to fight hard to hold onto fourth place, with just 0.172 seconds covering the entire front row.

"The pace is very close up front, so I think we have a big chance tomorrow," said YZR-M1 project leader Ichiro Yoda. "It's good to have both bikes on the front row. We think that Max's machine had something like an electrical problem, so he couldn't attack pole. We're now checking to see what happened. But other than that it seems like we are ready for the race. Both Max and Carlos are happy with their chassis set-ups and we did good tyre endurance tests with Michelin this morning. We expect Carlos to use the new engine spec but Max still prefers the previous spec because it's less aggressive, though he will race the new chassis for the first time."

A close second fastest yesterday, Max Biaggi had been planning to go for pole position in the final stages of today's second qualifying session. But while the Marlboro Yamaha Team man was denied that chance, he is still very confident of battling up front in tomorrow's race.

"I'm a bit sad that I couldn't improve on my Friday best, but we've done a good job so far and I know tomorrow can be a good day for us," said Biaggi, winner of August's Czech GP. "I thought I could go faster than yesterday, then with 15 minutes to go my number-one bike started to misfire. I rode back to the pits and jumped on my second bike but that machine uses a different chassis, so it didn't feel the same, so I couldn't push. On the positive side, at least it happened today and not tomorrow. Anyway, we're on the front row and if we have a good warm-up session we have a good chance in the race."

Carlos Checa stayed fourth quickest today despite improving on his Friday best by 0.661 seconds. That lap brought the Marlboro Yamaha Team rider to within 0.172 seconds of pole, putting him in confident mood for tomorrow's race.

"I'm pretty satisfied because we've worked well here and the bike has improved, so I ended up quite close to pole," said Checa who was the star performer at Rio two weeks ago, getting away last after failing to engage first gear at the start, then coming through to lead the race before falling. "This time I plan to get a good start by using first gear! I don't think I could go from last to first again! Today we focused on chassis and suspension set-up, trying to further improve front-end feeling. We're on the front row, we've done a good tyre-endurance run with Michelin and if the pace is low 50s and high 49s, I know I can run up front."

Daijiro Kato scored his first MotoGP pole position today, despite tumbling during this afternoon's final qualifier. "The crash was unfortunate," said the Japanese star, whose Friday best was good enough to keep him on top. "I went out on my second bike but couldn't improve. Anyway, I'm happy to be on pole at home and I'm looking forward to the race." Impressive 500 rider Loris Capirossi (Honda) was third quickest while World Champion Valentino Rossi (Honda) could only manage sixth quickest.
 

-----   Red Bull   -----

Red-Bull Yamaha duo Garry McCoy and John Hopkins will start alongside each other on the fourth row of the grid for tomorrow's Pacific GP at the Twin Ring Motegi.

McCoy and Hopkins finished 15th and 16th fastest respectively after both encountered late drama in this afternoon's final qualifying session.

Australian McCoy was once again caught up in some heavy traffic that disrupted his efforts to bump himself further up the grid. His best lap time of 1.50.702 was a massive 2.1s under his previous best ever lap time at the Twin Ring Motegi, and saw him slice 1.4s off his best time from yesterday. Unfortunately it only improved on his provisional grid position by three places.

It was an equally eventful finale for American Hopkins, who pulled off a miraculous recovery having almost crashed his YZR500 in the closing moments. Trying to utilise the extra traction of Dunlop's qualifying tyre, Hopkins had all but tumbled off his bike when he somehow managed to save himself from hitting the gravel trap. The evidence of "Hopper's" brilliant save was clear afterwards as his leathers were badly scuffed on the right side.

GARRY McCOY ­ 15th - 1m50.702 - "On my second last run I was behind Tohru Ukawa when he drifted wide in the hairpin out on the back section of the track. It was on my hot lap and I had to chuck it under him but because I had to take a tighter line and I messed up my exit. On my final run I came across a lot of traffic. There were bikes everywhere and at one stage it seemed like a wall in front of me. I'm feeling pretty good with the race package we've got, but there's a race between the two-strokes and the four-strokes even more than ever now. I'm 2.1s faster than I've ever been at this track and I'm only 15th. It just looks so easy on a four-stroke. Earlier today I was talking to Loris Capirossi, and he said Alex Barros had told him the four-stroke is now a real 500 and the two-strokes that the rest of us are on is just like a 250."

JOHN HOPKINS ­ 16th - 1m50.849 - "I'm a little disappointed to be starting from where I am on the grid. I wanted to start a lot further up. But on my last flying lap I'd crashed but somehow managed to save it. I was in T2 going into a right-hander and I was pushing really hard when I lost the front end. I just dug everything in and it was a case of defying the laws of gravity. I really wanted to keep the bike upright because I thought I'd have time for another flying lap. But by the time I'd managed to stop the front sliding, only my heel was hanging on the tail section. I feel really confident for the race tomorrow. I was only 0.2s slower on race tyres than I was on qualifiers which is a big surprise, but that shows we've worked on finding a really good race set-up.

PETER CLIFFORD ­ TEAM DIRECTOR - "Obviously the grid positions are not what we wanted. Unfortunately both final runs didn't work for John or Garry. John did a brilliant job to keep it on the wheels and I'm sure both guys will be able improve their positions in tomorrow's race. Both guys seem very confident with their race set-ups.