Olivier Jacque (Yamaha) was the final name to sit atop the official timesheets, in a session that had the top 17 riders all grouped in one second, and all 21 qualifiers within 1.547 of the pole time, 1:25.758.

This incredible competitiveness meant that the top 18 riders were all under the existing race lap record for the Sachsen track and the top seven finished inside the previous qualifying best. Of greater overall significance was the fact that for the first time this year the more traditional 500cc two-strokes appeared to be at no disadvantage compared to the previously dominant new breed of 990cc four-strokes.

Jacque, his team-mate Shinya Nakano (Yamaha) and Max Biaggi (Yamaha) formed the triumvirate that ousted previous pole sitter Barros from the top slot, although the Brazilian star was still only 0.198 seconds from pole position. "The line-up of the front row tells us how competitive the two-stroke can be here, and maybe it will be the case again at Valencia - and maybe even Estoril. I hope so!" said Barros. "I am disappointed to lose pole position but the times are so tight that there is nothing in it. I am just happy to be the top Honda qualifier for the first time this year. In the race I think that there will be an advantage in weight for the lighter two-strokes."

Tohru Ukawa (Repsol Honda Team RCV211V) overcame his recent injury to take the first place on the second row of the grid, and outqualify the World Championship leader, Valentino Rossi (Repsol Honda Team RC211V), who was sixth.

Ukawa's fastest time came close to the end of the frenetic final session once more and was better than many observers would have believed after his big crash at Donington, a bare eight days before. "I'm actually pretty happy with fifth after all I have been though over the last week," said an understandably relieved Ukawa. "I really wasn't sure yesterday that I could make it through the weekend. We made many adjustments in the early part of the session to get the balance of the bike right; adjustments to the ride height and the suspension."

Rossi, more accustomed to pole position than the second row, has made no secret of his dislike of the Sachsenring circuit, which does not allow him - or any of the riders on heavier four-stroke machinery - to exploit their power advantage to the full. "We have a lot of work to do," said Rossi.  "Basically, we had a good set-up this morning. The bike felt strong and I could ride fast with the same rhythm. In this afternoon's session it feels very different and maybe it's the track temperature. We have to look at the data to see what's changed."

In his last qualifying session on a two-stroke machine, before taking delivery of his factory V-5 RCV211V at the Brno race in late August, Daijiro Kato (Fortuna Honda Gresini NSR500) took ninth place in the qualifying standings, good enough for a third row start.

Only 0.347 seconds from pole position, Kato knows a good launch is essential at the peculiar Sachsenring circuit. "Tomorrow the most important thing is to make a great start and try to gain some positions, because it is not easy to pass at this track," he explained. "This circuit is unbelievable - the kerbs are really close and you cannot relax for one second. It's good fun but not easy, especially if you have to regain positions."

Despite a late crash, in the final two minutes of the session, Tetsuya Harada (Pramac Honda NSR500) set a best time within one second of Jacque's pole mark, but finished only 17th overall. "I used a soft tyre to improve my lap time but in the corner entrance the front wheel tucked, and I crashed without any damage," commented Harada. "I used today's session to find the right set-up for the race - without a good result. Tomorrow's result will be determined by the choice of tyres."

The frantic pace of qualifying saw grid positions split almost by hundredths of a second, providing the meagre reward of 18th place for Jurgen van den Goorbergh (Kanemoto Racing Honda NSR500). The Dutch rider was frustrated to have ridden so well and yet drop down the order as the final laps went in. "I knew I had to improve my time by three or four tenths, and I managed to do that. Instead of moving up and staying up the order I moved up and then right back down again. I don't think we could have gone any faster with what we had, so I am happy with that. But it is strange to be so close to the pole and yet so far down the grid."

Alex Hofmann (West Honda Pons NSR500), stand-in rider for the injured Loris Capirossi, acquitted himself well after a tough Donington Park race last weekend, and although he was only 19th out of 21, the virtually MotoGP rookie was only 1.276 seconds from pole. "Now I have eight hours and one race on the NSR, so I am satisfied with my lap time, which is only 1.2 seconds from pole position." The young German continued: "That was an unbelievably close session, more like 125 than MotoGP."

An indication of exactly how close the session was came from the fact that even the slowest rider was over four seconds inside the qualifying limit, during what was easily the closest MotoGP timed practice session on record.

Robby Rolfo (Fortuna Honda Gresini NSR250) proved to be the highest-placed Honda 250 rider in fourth, fighting a few set-up problems along the way. "We have struggled to find good settings for the front end of the bike," said Rolfo in the front row press conference. "Today was a little better and the bike is good now, but not quite as competitive as the other factory bikes on the track this weekend. We are working hard to find a better way and I think we can be closer tomorrow."

Fonsi Nieto (Aprilia) took the 250 pole, with both him and second place rider Marco Melandri (Aprilia) relying on the times they set in the first qualifying session to go 1-2 in the final reckoning.

RS250R/W Honda rider Haruchika Aoki (Arie Molenaar Racing) scored 11th place on the grid, during another close qualifying battle.

Emilio Alzamora (Fortuna Honda Gresini NSR250) had a troubled qualifying, finishing 13th after failing to improve on his Friday time due to factors outside his control. "The bike is good, I am happy with that and all the work the team has done," affirmed Alzamora, "but the problem was that every time I tried to set a good time I got held up by traffic."

A new 125 class qualifying record gave Arnaud Vincent (Aprilia) pole position; ahead of reigning champion Manual Poggiali (Gilera). A tough session for the Honda riders saw Daniel Pedrosa (Telefonica Movistar Jr Team Honda RS125R) the leading Honda light, eighth overall and thus earning the right to a second row start.

The young Spaniard Pedrosa said of his qualifying performance: "We haven't been able to resolve our rear suspension problems yet. All weekend we've been testing every type of set-up, but the rear keeps on sliding - although I am confident that in tomorrow morning's warm-up we can still find the key. This is a very twisty track, and narrow in its first half, so I hope to make a good start."

Mika Kallio (Red Devil Honda RS125R) rode into the top ten after some aggressive on-track determination, setting a time just over one second slower than pole.

An all-Honda fourth row of the grid was headed by Andrea Dovizioso (CE BA Corse Honda RS125R) in 13th, closely followed by Gabor Talmacsi (PEV Moto ADACSachsen Honda RS125R), Joan Olive (Telefonica Movistar Jr Team Honda RS125R), and Mirko Giansanti (Scot Racing Team Honda RS125R).

Olive was rueful about his qualifying fortunes. "In general the pace was very fast and an improvement of 1.5 seconds compared to yesterday only gained me one position."

Alex Barros, West Honda Pons: 4th: "To be on the front row and to be the first Honda is cause for satisfaction. I really am lapping consistently quickly and I believe I can be amongst the leaders tomorrow. It is very important to get a good start here because overtaking is complicated and passing a slower rider can take up too much time. At the end of the Qualifying session I thought I could improve my time but I was blocked by Aoki and I lost time. But I don't want to blame anyone, as he was trying to complete his fastest lap too, but for sure I would have bettered my time had I not followed him, although I do not know if it would have been fast enough for pole position as the times were very close. Anyway, one fast lap is one thing, the race is another, and for this reason I am sure that riders like Rossi, Ukawa or Checa, who finished lower on the grid, will be in the leading group of riders tomorrow. Finally I would like to say that I am confident because we have found good settings for the bike, in both tyres and suspension, and I feel strong enough to fight and win this race."

Tohru Ukawa, Repsol Honda Team: 5th: "Actually pretty happy with fifth after all that I've been through over the last week. I really wasn't sure yesterday morning if I could make it through the weekend. We did many adjustments in the early part of the session to get the balance of the bike right; adjustments to the ride height and the suspension. Now I can get power down and the bike feels good. The Sachsenring is difficult to overtake on so I will be hoping to make a great start. For me it will be a long race. I am still very tired."

Valentino Rossi, Repsol Honda Team: 6th: "We have a lot of work to do. Basically we had a good set-up this morning. The bike felt strong in most places. I could ride fast with the same rhythm. The bike was very much easier to stop and was handling sweet. In this afternoon's session it feels very different. Maybe it's the track temperature. We will have to look at the data and see what's changed. In many places around the circuit the tyre is now spinning and I can't hold such a tight line. I seem to be going too wide in many of sections. We must improve for the race set-up. "

Daijiro Kato, Fortuna Honda Gresini: 9th: "Tomorrow the most important thing is to get a great start and immediately gain positions, because it's not easy to pass at this circuit. The German track is unbelievable: the kerbs are really close and you cannot relax for one second. It's good fun but not easy, especially if you have to regain positions. Anyway I'm in good shape and I think I will have a good race."

Fausto Gresini, Team Manager: "I'm satisfied with this qualifying session: Daijiro had a fast rhythm for many laps. At the end he could have done more, if he didn't have riders around him. Anyway I think that he will make a good race tomorrow, because he can fight with the best of riders. Here I saw that this is not a good track for MotoGP bikes, the smaller capacity machines go better."

Tetsuya Harada, Pramac Team Honda: 17th: "I have used a soft tyre to improve my lap time but in the corner entrance the steering wheel closed. I crashed without any damage. I used today's session for finding the right set up for the race, without a good result. Unfortunately on this track the tyres are not so perfect and I have difficulties in the corners. Tomorrows result will be conditioned by the choice of the tyres."

Jurgen vd Goorbergh, Kanemoto Racing: 18th: "It felt OK out there at the maximum performance of the bike. My lap times were consistent but I'm over half a second from where I should be the way I'm riding. It's a little difficult to overcome the parameters set by tyre performance. If I take a hard compound it's difficult for the right handers, but if I take thee soft compound to overcome that problem the tyre will not last the race. Unfortunately we don't have dual compound tyres. As I said, I know I'm riding really well but I'm one second off pole. I'm not really happy with that!"

Erv Kanemoto - team owner - manager: "We worked hard in that session but noting we did had a big effect on Jurgen's lap times. There are a few small settings on the bike we can change, but nothing that will improve the times drastically. In that session we tried the new Bridgestone tyres we received but we could not better our times, we were almost running the same times, whatever we tried. Tonight we will sit down and discuss which direction we need to go in the warm-up tomorrow morning."

Alex Hofmann, West Honda Pons: 19th: "I am very happy with my performance today, but the frustrating thing is to finish only 1.2 seconds off pole position and only qualify in 19th place. It is incredible to see how only 1.4 seconds separates first from last place, something which made this session really impressive. The truth is I have improved a lot in each session and I am confident ahead of the race because we have found good settings for the bike. I must stress that Alex Barros has helped me a great deal and that I made significant progress in the last session."

Sito Pons, West Honda Pons: "At Sachsenring the differences are minimal and you only have to look at the first ten riders who are separated by only three tenths of a second. Obviously this is not normally the case, and so I am predicting a very tight race. I think that Alex Barros has a lot of pace and could be challenging for victory. As far as Alex Hofmann is concerned, I would like to say that he is improving and that he has made a lot of progress since England. He should now be challenging for a points finish tomorrow."