After their woes in first qualifying, Honda showed a marked improvement by getting three of their machines into Superpole.
Carlos Checa led the way once again, the Spaniard ninth best overall, while Ten Kate team-mate
Ryuichi Kiyonari squeezed into the shootout in 16th. The third Honda to make it through belongs to
Karl Muggeridge, who found a huge improvement in the latter stages to leap up from 26th to 14th.
He will re-appear in Superpole later today alongside
Yukio Kagayama,
Ruben Xaus,
Lorenzo Lanzi and
Noriyuki Haga, the experienced quartet filling positions ten to 13.
Kawasaki, meanwhile, got one of their bikes into the reckoning, although Ayrton Badovini was probably not the rider they were expecting to do so. Indeed, the Italian, riding the satellite Pedercini Kawasaki, moved up into the reckoning late on to snatch 15th place on the provisional grid. The works PSG-1 machines of
Regis Laconi and
Makoto Tamada will start 21st and 22nd after Laconi suffered a tumble with twenty minutes of the session remaining.
Also missing the cut was David Checa, who had run as high as 11th before slipping back to 17th, Gregorio Lavilla in 19th and
Roberto Rolfo in 20th.
