Edwards was disappointed with his Superpole lap as he missed out on a front row start for the two 25-lap races by just 0.043s. In the three rounds so far this year Edwards has taken pole position in South Africa and Australia and he qualified in third place in Spain.

"I made a complete mess of the lap," admitted Edwards. "A couple of mistakes at the start of the lap cost me the tiny bit of time I needed to get on the front row."

He continued: "We've got a good race set-up and that's more important than qualifying on pole position ­ although it would have been nice to get three in a row.

"Yesterday and today have been good for us and I was confident of getting pole position on the back of that. Starting from fifth is not what I wanted but it's the first few laps of the race that will count. If one of the front row make a break I need to be with them."

1. Noriyuki Haga - 1m28.806
2. Neil Hodgson - 1m28.823
3. Makoto Tamada - 1m28.861
4. Ben Bostrom - 1m29.216
5. Colin Edwards - 1m29.259
6. Akira Yanagawa - 1m29.545
7. Troy Bayliss - 1m29.626
8. Eric Bostrom - 1m29.914
9. Takeishi Tsujimura - 1m29.981
10. Wataru Yoshikawa - 1m30.188
11. James Toseland - 1m30.287
12. Ruben Xaus - 1m30.377
13. Yuichi Takeda - 1m30.745
14. Chris Walker - 1m30.796
15. Gregorio Lavilla - 1m30.918
16. Lucio Pedercini - 1m31.291

The following riders did not make the SuperPole cut-off

17. Borja - 1m30.593
18. Borciani - 1m30.762
19. Heckles - 1m31.620
20. Nakamura - 1m31.830 (Time from 1st session)
21. Antonello - 1m32.012
22. Martin - 1m32.117 (Time from 1st session)
23. Clementi - 1m32.190
24. Parkes - 1m32.226
25. Sanchini - 1m32.573 (Time from 1st session)

NB:  Hitoyasu qualified for SuperPole but highsided during qualifying and as a result has to miss this weekend's round with a fractured left radius.  Organisers then promoted Eric Bostrom from his 17th position on the time sheets to 16th which enabled him to run SuperPole.  The American took full advantage during SuperPole and moved himself up to the 2nd row.