Australian Andrew Pitt qualified the new Kawasaki Ninja ZX-RR comfortably inside the 107 percent cut-off for his first GP, after carving another 1.5-seconds off his best time of yesterday in today’s final qualifying session.

The 2001 World Supersport champion, in at the deep end after being drafted in to replace the injured Akira Yanagawa on the new Kawasaki MotoGP prototype, ended only his second day on the new machine in 22nd position, for a start on the sixth row of the grid.

Pitt (26) had never ridden a GP bike before yesterday, nor used carbon brakes.

The Kawasaki is in its second of four races this year as a wild card entry, in preparation for a first full MotoGP season next year. The 990cc prototype, which uses novel flat-slide fuel injection and striking aerodynamic bodywork, ran for the first time last month. Original rider, factory tester Akira Yanagawa had been due to ride the machine, but suffered a crack to his pelvis at the Pacific GP at Motegi one week before.

Andrew Pitt – 22nd - 2m09.106 - "We made good progress on our set-up with race tyres, and I improved my lap time further on our first set of soft tyres towards the end of the session. The second set of soft tyres felt different, and I couldn’t go faster any more on my last run. All in all, it’s still a matter of learning the bike and the circuit, and step by step, we’re getting closer. The bike feels okay, and I’m looking forward to going out in the race tomorrow!"

Harald Eckl - Team Manager - "It doesn’t look good when you are four seconds behind, but I’m still satisfied with our progress. Andrew has done a good job, he has improved consistently, and he stayed in the seat safely throughout the four sessions. Our next goal is to take another 1.5 or even 2 seconds off the gap to the fastest guys in Phillip Island, and maybe another second in Valencia, and then we are where we want to be. I am also happy with the bike. We improved the set-up step by step, and we didn’t have a mechanical problem whatsoever. The engine runs like clockwork, and our top speed of 293 kph is on the same level as the speed of Suzuki, and they have been tuning their bike all year long, where it is only our fifth full day out there. All we need tomorrow is to cover the full race distance!"