Edwards repeated his domination of the morning's free practice session by leading the one-hour qualifying session from start to finish on his 1000cc SP-2 Honda machine.

"All I wanted to achieve today has been achieved," said Edwards, second in the championship points standings, 29 points behind Troy Bayliss. Edwards added: "We concentrated on race set-up and got used to the changes in the track layout and it's all worked out well for us."

He continued: "It would have been nice to throw a rear Superpole tyre in for a fast lap but we just wanted to make sure the dry race setting was OK in case it is dry for Sunday's races.

"I don't mind the changes to the circuit. There's a few more than I first thought but we've got on OK today and the new motor feels as good as it did in Germany last weekend."