Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By Glenn LeSanto

Wet and dry qualifying leaves Edwards on pole.

Colin Edwards has taken provisional pole after a difficult qualifying session held half in the dry and half in torrential rain. Edwards got straight down to work with qualifying tires as soon as the session started, rather than risking waiting. His gamble paid off as the rain soon came and because the session had been announced as wet in advance, qualifying continued despite the rain. The Texan beat the weather, recording his fastest lap on only his third flying lap of the Silverstone circuit. His time of 1:48.913 was enough to secure pole, he only lapped a total of six times in the session.

Edwards demoted yesterday’s pole sitter and local hero Neil Hodgson to fourth. Hodgson did more laps, staying out in the rain to perfect his wet set-up. But his fastest dry lap of 1:50.100 was enough to get him on the provisional front row in fourth.

Troy Bayliss recovered from his crash during Friday’s qualifying to leap up the ladder to provisional second on the grid. His teammate Ruben Xaus continued his return to form by qualifying third.

America’s Eric Bostrom managed to make the most of the dry session, getting himself inside the 107% of fastest time cut-off to qualify 17th on his factory Kawasaki. His brother Ben Bostrom is provisionally ninth on the grid.

The second row features no less than three British riders, with Michael Rutter fifth, Steve Hislop sixth and Chris Walker seventh. Noriyuki Haga took the final provisional second-row place, in eighth.

Saturday’s Qualifying Times:

1. Colin Edwards, Honda RC51, 1:48.913
2. Troy Bayliss, Ducati 998F02, 1:49.469
3. Ruben Xaus, Ducati F02, 1:49.977
4. Neil Hodgson, Ducati 998F01, 1:50.100
5. Michael Rutter, Ducati 998RS, 1:50.104
6. Steve Hislop, Ducati 998RS, 1:50.138
7. Chris Walker, Kawasaki ZX-7RR, 1:50.573
8. Noriyuki Haga, Aprilia RSV1000, 1:50.676
9. Ben Bostrom, Ducati 998F02, 1:50.749
10. James Toseland, Ducati 998F01, 1:50.836
11. Pierfrancesco Chili, Ducati 998RS, 1:51.303
12. Lucio Pedercini, Ducati 998RS, 1:51.526
13. Gregorio Lavilla, Suzuki GSX-R750, 1:51.762
14. Glen Richards, Kawasaki ZX-7RR, 1:51.904
15. Steve Martin, Ducati 998RS, 1:52.021
16. Shane Byrne, Ducati 998RS, 1:52.143
17. Eric Bostrom, Kawasaki ZX-7RR, 1:52.266
18. Dean Ellison, Ducati 996RS, 1:52.541
19. Juan Borja, Ducati 998RS, 1:52.578
20. Mauro Sanchini, Kawasaki ZX-7RR, 1:52.616
21. Marco Borciani, Ducati 998RS, 1:52.890
22. Serafino Foti, Ducati 996RS, 1:53.405
23. Peter Goddard, Benelli Tornado 900, 1:53.509
24. Ivan Clementi, Kawasaki ZX-7RR, 1:53.753
25. Alessandro Antonello, Ducati 998RS, 1:53.908
26. Broc Parkes, Ducati 998RS, 1:54.249
27. Mark Heckles, Honda RC51, 1:54.370
28. Jiri Mrkyvka, Ducati 996RS, 1:55.529
DNQ, Yann Gyger, Honda RC51, 2:06.628
DNQ, Bertrand Stey, Honda RC51, 2:21.107