Held in largely the same windy conditions that plagued day one of qualifying, the final timed session was a frantic affair on the final laps, as the winds eased by a small degree and all the top riders embarked on one last gasp effort to take pole.

Van den Goorbergh, quick all weekend long, was happy with his entire package in qualifying, and feels he can put in a good race performance as well.

"Maybe this result has got more to do with the fact that we have got softer qualifying tyres than Michelin at the moment, but nevertheless I think that in terms of race lap times we are also competitive," said the Dutch rider. "All weekend long we have been around fifth or sixth. It is nice to be here and back at the front again because it has been such a frustrating year. Until now it has not been going that well, and I don't think it's my fault either, so it is good to have this chance to show I can be successful."

Alex Barros (West Honda Pons RC211V), pole for much of the session, went fifth overall, the top 990cc four-stroke rider on show once more.

"I think that the front row is a bit of a mirage," said Barros, wryly. "I am happy because I am the first rider on Michelin tyres and also the first four-stroke pilot. Obviously I would have liked to be on the front row, but I am lapping quickly and I have a lot of confidence in the bike's settings and the tyre choice.

A numerical Honda domination of the top ten positions continued with Tohru Ukawa (Repsol Honda Team RC211V) in sixth, scoring a second row start after making ground on the second day.

"I am pretty happy with the result in these conditions," affirmed Ukawa. "We have a good balance of the machine and the tyres are showing constant wear, which is important for the race. The tyres are moving a little on the gas but the whole package feels fine. Starting from the second row is no big deal."

New World Champion Valentino Rossi (Repsol Honda Team RC211V) went pole with 18 minutes of the final one-hour session remaining, dropping to seventh at the end, unable to get another perfect lap in before the final hour elapsed. If Rossi does repeat his 2001 success at Phillip Island it would be his 50th GP win in all classes.

"Generally the feeling of the bike is good," said Rossi. "The place I know I need to be faster is the hairpin, the feeling from the bike is not so good there. The front doesn't feel too solid and right in the middle of the corner there is a little chatter before the power comes on. Our bike is heavier and it needs a lot of effort to move it around in these conditions. For the race it will be very important to look after the tyres to be competitive."

The first place on the third row of the grid was earned by Loris Capirossi (West Honda Pons NSR500), with the two-stroke rider running in tandem with his four-stroke equipped team-mate Barros for long periods of qualifying.

"This second day of qualifying has gone better than the first," said a relieved Capirossi. "I think we are going about it in the right way to be competitive. I am lapping quickly and I can be up with the leaders tomorrow."

Daijiro Kato (Fortuna Honda Gresini RC211V) took his wailing V5 to the final top ten spot, making it six Hondas in the top ten places. His troubles with the wind were more pronounced than most other riders', simply due to his physique.

"I had great difficulty to ride in this wind," said the small and slightly-build Kato. "In some points it moves the bike around and I have to use my maximum strength to hold it because I am very light. It is not my favourite way to ride."

Wild card rider Shinichi Itoh (Kanemoto Racing Honda NSR500), was up in fifth spot at one stage, ending his one-off race qualifying 13th out of 22 after the last 20 minutes of the session saw much movement in the combined qualifying sheets.

Tetsuya Harada (Pramac Honda NSR500) ran out 18th, not being able to stay at the qualifying pace of some other Dunlop runners.

Like many other riders Robby Rolfo (Fortuna Honda Gresini NSR250) struggled in the gusty winds that plagued qualifying, and had other factors to overcome to go ninth on the grid.

"I am not so happy because I did not improve on my first qualifying time," said Rolfo. "We had a small technical problem on my number one bike. My team fixed it so that I could ride 'my' bike again in the final session, but we lost some time."

Emilio Alzamora (Fortuna Honda Gresini NSR250) finally improved his first day qualifying time to go 11th fastest on his works machine, 1.883 seconds from pole.

"We had a lot of problems with the front pushing and that held back our times," stated the former 125cc World Champion.

Splitting the Fortuna NSRs, young Brit Leon Haslam qualified an excellent tenth, using high corner speed to make up time on his production RS250R/W against the faster factory machines.

Haruchika Aoki (DeGraaf Grand Prix Team Honda RS250R/W) took a top 15 finish on his evolution spec machine, with Haslam's team-mate Jason Vincent (By Queroseno Racing Honda RS250R/W) 17th. Jakub Smrz (DeGraaf Grand Prix Team Honda RS250R/W) was the final Honda qualifier, 22nd out of the 25 riders that made it to the grid.

Daniel Pedrosa (Telefonica Movistar Jr Team Honda RS125R), close to a front row start on day one, ended his qualifying sessions in tenth place, earning a third row start, much to his chagrin as he races to keep his slender championship hopes alive in the last two races of the year.

He was plainly unhappy with his lot after practice, especially as a short fall of rain robbed all the riders of some vital time at the beginning of the qualifying session.

"I can't be happy with that qualifying without any doubt the worst of the season," said the disappointed Spaniard. "This position is not correct for me; my worst start for more than a year. I can't pin down the problem exactly; it's a sum of different problems. The bike wouldn't go where I wanted it to go, and I couldn't do any more. I was bouncing a lot in the fast corners, which is precisely where you make a good lap time. Instead I had to back off the throttle. I am confident we will find an improvement in warm-up tomorrow, so I am able to make a good race."

Joan Olive (Telefonica Movistar Jr Team Honda RS125R) will start the 125 race from the outside of the fourth row, taking 16th fastest time overall.

"The rain at the start of the session ruined all our plans," explained Olive." I had a good tyre, with just one lap on it, so we decided to stick with it until the closing stages. When I started to improve I got tied up in a big group that prevented me from getting a better time. My bike is much better overall than yesterday, and I think our settings are good for tomorrow."

The top qualifying Honda rider proved to be Andrea Dovizioso (Scot Racing Team Honda RS125R), one place ahead of Pedrosa in ninth, and two places ahead of flying Finn Mika Kallio (Red Devil Honda RS125R). Masao Azuma (Tribe by Breil Honda RS125R) rode to 17th, Gabor Talmacsi (PEV Moto ADAC Sachsen Honda RS125R) to the last position in the top 20.

Jurgen van den Goorbergh, Kanemoto Honda, 4th: "Definitely my best two laps I've put in for a long time. A bit like my MuZ days. On my best laps I only lacked a little grip on the last two corners, otherwise I could have been a couple of tenths of a second faster. At the start of the last session I got a little worried because we had lost a bit of balance on the bike but we fixed that. In some corners we are much faster than the four-strokes, I'm very fast at the first corner, but not quite so fast on the corner coming onto the straight when I'm on the edge of the tyre. We have a couple of things to try tonight, so I'm hopeful there is more to come. I was on pole for a short time but was not sure I could keep it but I did know I would be on the front row. It's a fantastic feeling to run a lap like my best today."

Alex Barros, West Honda Pons, 5th: " I am happy because I am the first rider on Michelin tyres and also the first four-stroke rider. Obviously I would have liked to be on the front row, but I am lapping quickly and I have a lot of confidence in the bike settings and the tyre-choice. I am sure we will be competitive. The lap times achieved by the riders ahead of me make me think that they have used qualifying tyres. This makes the race a lot more exciting and it is a good thing for the championship that other bikes and tyre manufacturers are joining the fight."

Tohru Ukawa, Repsol Honda Team: 6th: "I'm pretty happy with the results in the conditions. We have a good balance for the machine and the tyres are showing constant wear, which is important for the race. The tyres are moving a little on-gas but the whole package feels fine. Starting from the second row is no big deal. I've only had three front row starts this season! It's race set-up that is important and to get a good start with the front pack. Two races to go and seven points behind Biaggi, in second. I  will try my best tomorrow."

Valentino Rossi, Repsol Honda Team: 7th: " Generally the feeling of the bike is good. The place I know I need to be faster is in the hair-pin. The feeling from the bike is not so good there. The front doesn't feel too solid and right in the middle of the hair-pin there is a little chatter just before the power goes on. In the session today I tried to ride very sweet which is best in the very windy conditions. I seem to have good edge grip from the tyres although we lose a little traction in places. I have the impression from following some of the other bikes that it looks easier. Our bike is heavier and needs a big effort to move around in these conditions. For the race it is important to look after the tyres. It will seem long race and will be very competitive. I looked after my tyres last year and made a good result."

Loris Capirossi, West Honda Pons, 9th: " This second day of qualifying has gone a lot better than the first. Things have worked out a lot better and I think we have got the right bike set-up after much work on the settings. I think that we are going about it in the right way to be competitive. I am lapping quickly and I can be up with the leaders tomorrow. Although I am ninth on the grid, I am only three tenths behind Alex, who is the first four-stroke and the first on Michelin."

Antonio Cobas (Technical Director): " It's been along wait for this. Bridgestone and Dunlop have spent a lot of time developing qualification tyres and on a day when the climatic conditions have been difficult they have been remarkable. Michelin has spent two years concentrating on developing race tyres and they have not given a thought to qualification tyres, but I am sure that if they did put their mind to it they could come up with something very good."

Sito Pons: " Alex is the first four-stroke on the first rider on Michelin tyres and Loris is also lapping fast, which gives me hope ahead of the race as both have a good rhythm. On a different note, it is good to see that the leading riders today are not the normal ones. It is good for the championship that there are alternatives, whether it be teams, riders, bikes or tyres."

Daijiro Kato, Fortuna Honda Gresini, 10th: "I have difficulty to ride in this wind. In some points it moves the bike around and I had to use the
maximum strength of my arms to control my line because I'm very light. It's not my favourite way to ride Tomorrow morning we will try and find a setting to cope with this. I think that the race will depend on the weather conditions."

Fausto Gresini: "In the last two days we didn't find the right was to find a definite setting for the race. We cannot exploit the maximum potential of the bike, especially in these weather conditions. Today we went better in respect to yesterday's performance. Tomorrow during the warm up we will try to improve the situation. It was a surprising day today: not one four-stroke on the front row. I think a lot of things will change tomorrow."

Shinichi Itoh, Kanemoto Honda, 13th: "I'm happy with that session, so much better than yesterday. Everything was better today, particularly the suspension. We also worked on the engine electronics, which helped me a lot, and of course the Bridgestone's worked really well for me. All that and me getting in a lot of laps has put me where I am. I spent a lot of time running an endurance test on my race tyres so I have a lot of confidence going into the race, the tyres will work for the whole distance. There is a lot of life in the older riders out there, Jeremy (McWilliams) is 38, and I'm 35 now!"

Erv Kanemoto: "This has been a very good day for us, this is what we have been working towards these last two years. We've hope for this all year and now it's arrived I'm very pleased for the whole team who have worked really hard. It's only one race for the moment but if you look at our performances since Rio you can see the slight progress we have made, better step by step, never sideways. We are getting to where we want to be. Of course the race could change the position, the four-strokes seem to have trouble with the wind, more than the lighter bikes. If the wind drops things might be different. Hopefully conditions will stay the same. We now have enough of a base for consistency in future and that's so important in racing. I'm real happy with the situation."

Tetsuya Harada, Pramac Honda Team: 18th: "There's too much wind! All the riders have the same problems but my bike usually has difficulties in normal conditions and here is worst! I was not comfortable and afraid of the crashes."