World SuperSport 2002 - Round 12 - Imola - Qualifying 2

Fuchs Kawasaki's Andrew Pitt will start tomorrow's 21-lap Supersport race at Imola from the front row of the grid, after a torrential downpour minutes before the final qualifying session prevented any of the Supersport contenders from bettering their lap times from Friday's opening session.

Although the times today were slower, the drying track provided an opportunity for Pitt to continue working on machine set-up; work that will stand the 26-year-old reigning World Champion in good stead for tomorrow's race.

'It's good to be on the front row again, especially for the last race of the season,' declared Pitt. 'We made some solid progress with the bike this morning, improving the rear suspension set-up considerably, and I felt really comfortable out there. The Fuchs Kawasaki ZX-6R suits the Imola track and the Italian fans are always vocal in their support at this particular circuit. The championship may have gone, but I'm really looking forward to the race tomorrow.'

Pitt may have been happy with his grid position, but the same can't be said of the Australian's Fuchs Kawasaki team-mate, James Ellison. 21st after qualifying yesterday, the 20-year-old Briton was confident of improving his position this afternoon, after making a number of changes to his Fuchs Kawasaki ZX-6R during the dry morning practice session. Unfortunately, the onset of rain shortly before the final qualifying session got underway meant that Ellison was unable to improve on his time from Friday and will start tomorrow's race from the sixth row of the grid.

'We made a few changes overnight which, combined with some fine tuning during free practice this morning, allowed me to lap 1.5 seconds quicker than I managed yesterday,' said a disappointed Ellison. 'The rain meant that I wasn't able to improve on my previous qualifying time this afternoon, but at least we know we've got a good set-up for tomorrow's race. If I can get a good start and put in a strong first lap, then I'm pretty confident of making up places during the race.'