Motorcycling: McWilliams on second row despite food poisoning

Jeremy Mcwilliams continued his fine finish to the MotoGP season with another determined performance yesterday in provisional qualifying for the final race of the season in the Spanish Grand Prix here tomorrow.

The Ulsterman, who started the penultimate round in Australia from pole position before encountering problems in the race, has put his Proton KR on the second row for the race. McWilliams was seventh-fastest as the Brazilian Alex Barros topped the session on the West Honda.

The Italian Max Biaggi, having his last race for Marlboro Yamaha before an expected move to Honda, was second, with Japan's Daijiro Kato third on the Fortuna Honda.

The world champion Valentino Rossi, seeking to equal the record of 12 wins in a season in the premier class held by the Australian Mick Doohan, was fourth-fastest on the Repsol Honda.

McWilliams, who is keen to mark his final ride on Proton's two-stroke machine with a good performance before the team switch to four-stroke power next season, was pleased to make it on to the second row despite suffering from a bout of food poisoning.

"It did not help, but once again the bike was fantastic through the bends with the front Bridgestone tyres working brilliantly," he said. "Hopefully I'll feel a bit stronger tomorrow and give those four-strokes a hard time even if they are nearly 30kph faster than me down the straight."

Italy's Marco Melandri celebrated landing the 250cc world title in the previous round by taking provisional pole position for the final race of the season The Aprilia factory rider topped the time charts as the British pair Jason Vincent and Leon Haslam just failed to make the top 15.

Vincent made the fourth row in 16th and his Cibertel Honda team-mate Haslam was 18th. France's Arnaud Vincent took the advantage from his title rival Manuel Poggiali during provisional qualifying.

Vincent, who leads the title race by eight points, finished third-fastest behind the Spaniards Daniel Pedrosa, on the Telefonica Movistar Honda, and Hector Barbera, on the Master Aspar Aprilia.

Poggiali, the defending champion, suffered a mechanical breakdown with his Gilera, but the San Marino rider recovered towards the end of the session for a place on the second row.

The Welsh schoolboy Chaz Davies goes into the final race of the season still struggling to live with the pace. Davies was 35th on his Matteoni Aprilia, almost five seconds down on Pedrosa's time.