McWilliams casts off injury setback

The Ulsterman Jeremy McWilliams showed he was well on the way to recovering from a broken collarbone when he set the fifth-fastest time in provisional qualifying for tomorrow's German Grand Prix at Sachsenring.

The Ulsterman Jeremy McWilliams showed he was well on the way to recovering from a broken collarbone when he set the fifth-fastest time in provisional qualifying for tomorrow's German Grand Prix at Sachsenring.

The Aprilia rider, who underwent an operation after breaking his collarbone when he crashed during the British Grand Prix, qualified on the second row for his first race since the accident 12 days ago.

McWilliams crashed at Donington when lying fifth in the 250cc race. But he still managed to keep pace with the fastest riders, including the championship leader Daijiro Katoh who led the session on his Honda.

There was little to celebrate for McWilliams' fellow Britons as they again struggled to match the times of the fastest riders in the 500cc class. Derbyshire's Leon Haslam was 17th fastest on the Shell Advance Honda, four places ahead of the Pulse of Leicestershire's Jason Vincent.

Haslam's new team-mate, the Australian Brett Clarke, was slowest in the session on his debut in place of Nottingham's Chris Walker who was sacked by the team this week.

The 500 session was topped by Italian Max Biaggi, who set a new fastest lap for the German circuit of one minute 26.455 seconds on the Marlboro Yamaha.