The incident occurred during the Australian's final run, when a loss of traction at the front of his ZX-RR threatened to spit him off. West's foot slipped off the peg and broke the rear fender in the process, leaving him tenth on the grid but with reason to feel fortunate.

"I thought I was going to be able to put in a faster time on my last qualifying tyre but I nearly lost the front at turn 10," confirmed Ant. "My foot came off the peg as I was trying to save it and nearly went in to the back wheel. It smashed the rear mudguard though, so I was just lucky to stay on the bike. One of those near misses… Anyway, the set up's looking pretty good now: I did about ten laps on a race tyre, and felt quite strong, so as long as no-one else goes too fast it'll be alright!"

Team-mate Randy de Puniet avoided such scares and set a staggering 1min 30.713secs lap on race tyres - compared with Casey Stoner's best free practice lap of 1min 31.132secs - before claiming sixth on the grid with a best qualifying tyre run of 1min 30.110secs.

"I'm a little bit disappointed because even just on race tyres, I was very fast," said Randy. "Unfortunately I came across some traffic in T2 on my last run out on qualifiers, and lost some time, so it was impossible to improve my position on the grid. But most importantly we've got a good race setting and tyre for tomorrow; that's why I feel confident. If Anthony and I can fight in the top eight, that would be great for all of us. I like this track, and the bike's working well, so I really hope I can repeat the [podium] success of Japan tomorrow."