The Japanese rider suffered an injured wrist in the fall (a fracture of the third distal bone on his left hand) but no more serious injury. Initial impressions are that Izutsu will be out for two months.

A second major crash, a few minutes before the end of the second part of the one-hour session, saw debris from Lucio Pedercini’s Ducati spread on the track at the third corner, causing another interruption as it was cleared away by the marshals.

The last three minutes, and the eventual final part of the session initiated a cavalry charge from the top riders, all trying to set a fast time in one flying lap.

Makoto Tamada and Ben Bostrom both crashed at the same point of the third corner, neither with serious injury, as they pushed their front tyres beyond the limit. More than seven riders in total fell during the first qualifying session.

The plaudits for fastest rider were eventually won by wild-card rider Makoto Tamada (Cabin Honda) who ripped round his local track in 1m29.314.

Second quickest came Colin Edwards (Castrol Honda) making good use of his winter testing sessions at Sugo to finish top Michelin rider.

Noriyuki Haga (FGF Aprilia) was one of the many crashers, but despite this he went third quickest. Fourth, although out of the race, came Izutsu, the double race winner from the 2000 Sugo race.

Neil Hodgson (HM Plant Ducati) was the only one of the top riders to improve his provisional starting position in the last frantic couple of minutes of the session. His overall fifth was the best performance from any Ducati rider on the opening day.

Yamaha veteran Wataru Yoshikawa went 6th quickest, ensuring that there were five different types of machine in the top six places.

Late session crasher Ben Bostrom was seventh, the top factory Ducati rider on his L&M machine. Still on the provisional second row of the grid, Troy Bayliss took his Ducati Infostrada 998F02 to eighth, a vast improvement on his 2001 Sugo form, as he also benefited from the winter tests carried out by Michelin.

Returnee SBK star Akira Yanagawa was ninth on his Kawasaki with Yuichi Takeda tenth on a Sakurai Honda.

Thirteen riders finished within 0.841 second of Tamada’s time, the last three of whom were Ruben Xaus, Gregorio Lavilla and Chris Walker.

1. Makoto Tamada - Honda - 1m29.314
2. Colin Edwards - Honda - 1m29.454
3. Noriyuki Haga - Aprilia - 1m29.495
4. Hitoyasu Izutsu - Kawasaki - 1m29.612
5. Neil Hodgson - Ducati - 1m29.690
6. Wataru Yoshikawa - Yamaha - 1m29.723
7. Ben Bostrom - Ducati - 1m29.773
8. Troy Bayliss - Ducati - 1m29.773
9. Akira Yanagawa - Kawasaki - 1m29.823
10. Yuichi Takeda - Honda - 1m29.909
11. Ruben Xaus - Ducati - 1m29.938
12. Gregorio Lavilla - Suzuki - 1m30.121
13. Chris Walker - Kawasaki - 1m30.155
14. Takeishi Tsujimura - Yamaha - 1m30.642
15. Juan Borja - Ducati - 1m30.903
16. Eric Bostrom - Kawasaki - 1m30.948
17. Marco Borciani - Ducati - 1m31.075
18. James Toseland - Ducati - 1m31.188
19. Lucio Pedercini - Ducati - 1m31.798
20. Kenichiro Nakamura - Honda - 1m31.830
21. Alessandro Antonello - Ducati - 1m32.032
22. Steve Martin - Ducati - 1m32.117
23. Ivan Clementi - Kawasaki - 1m32.205
24. Broc Parkes - Ducati - 1m32.346
25. Mark Heckles - Honda - 1m32.508
26. Mauro Sanchini - Kawasaki - 1m32.573