World SuperBike 2002 - Round 4 - Sugo - Qualifying 1

HM Plant Ducati/GSE Racing's Neil Hodgson made a promising start in practicing prior to the fifth round of the Superbike World Championship at Sugo in Japan. The 28-year-old Isle of Man-based star posted the fifth fastest time (1:39.690) in the first official qualifying session, only 0.376 seconds down on provisional pole-sitter Makoto Tamada. Wildcard Tamada holds the lap record at the 3.737km circuit and won both races in last year's corresponding event.

"The HM Plant Ducati/GSE Racing team has arrived at Sugo in a good frame of mind and I think that is reflected by today's performance," said Hodgson. "We've made good progress with the HM Plant Ducati today which has enabled me to equal my best ever lap at Sugo. I'm happy with my progress so far but know that I've got work to do tomorrow on my race set-up."

Hodgson's team-mate James Toseland is 18th on the provisional grid for Sunday's two races. The 21-year-old Sheffield HM Plant Ducati/GSE Racing star is only 1.874 seconds down on Tamada's time, reflecting the fierce competition among the 26-strong Superbike field. There are seven wild card riders in the Japanese round of the series although series regular Hitoyasu Izutsu will be missing from race-day action after breaking his wrist in a crash towards the end of today's session.

"I knew that it was going to be competitive in qualifying at Sugo, but it's the same for all the regular Superbike riders," said Toseland. "As it stands at the moment, I'm only a fraction of a second outside of the top 16 qualifiers for Superpole, so that's the obvious objective for tomorrow morning's final qualifying session. I am determined to improve on my time which I feel I can do following the progress we have made today."

Makoto Tamada - Honda - 1m29.314
Colin Edwards - Honda - 1m29.454
Noriyuki Haga - Aprilia - 1m29.495
Hitoyasu Izutsu - Kawasaki - 1m29.612
Neil Hodgson - Ducati - 1m29.690
Wataru Yoshikawa - Yamaha - 1m29.723
Ben Bostrom - Ducati - 1m29.773
Troy Bayliss - Ducati - 1m29.773
Akira Yanagawa - Kawasaki - 1m29.823
Yuichi Takeda - Honda - 1m29.909
Ruben Xaus - Ducati - 1m29.938
Gregorio Lavilla - Suzuki - 1m30.121
Chris Walker - Kawasaki - 1m30.155
Takeishi Tsujimura - Yamaha - 1m30.642
Juan Borja - Ducati - 1m30.903
Eric Bostrom - Kawasaki - 1m30.948
Marco Borciani - Ducati - 1m31.075
James Toseland - Ducati - 1m31.188
Lucio Pedercini - Ducati - 1m31.798
Kenichiro Nakamura - Honda - 1m31.830
Alessandro Antonello - Ducati - 1m32.032
Steve Martin - Ducati - 1m32.117
Ivan Clementi - Kawasaki - 1m32.205
Broc Parkes - Ducati - 1m32.346
Mark Heckles - Honda - 1m32.508
Mauro Sanchini - Kawasaki - 1m32.573