A change in conditions and the smallest of problems in one corner were enough to deprive Troy of a Superpole win in front of his home fans. But although Troy was disappointed not to take Superpole, his lap was good enough for a spot on the front row of the grid for tomorrow’s pair of 22-lap races. Troy had led normal timed qualifying, but in the end it was his team mate Yukio Kagayama to steal the glory in the sixteen rider Superpole shoot-out. Second was Steve Martin (Petronas), with Max Neukirchner (Honda) a surprising third quickest.

TROY - 4th, 1:33.398 - "Of course I am a little disappointed today - not to win Superpole - but what happens in tomorrow’s 22-lap races is far more important. At this track it is so easy to lose a tad - or sometimes gain a tad - and that affects the whole lap and the lap time. I’m not at all bothered because I am on the front row and that’s all that matters really.

"Maybe I was a little cautious at the beginning of my Superpole lap and that, together with the fact that the bike didn’t seem to quite hook up as I expected at Siberia, was probably enough to lose a little time. It’s also possible that the drop in temperature changed the bike’s mapping a little, but we will not find that out for sure until we look at the telemetry this evening. There’s gonna be two long, hard races here tomorrow and I am confident that I can win at least one race. I don’t think any rider is going to break away from the rest. It’s going to be a real fight to the flag and I’m ready for that.