Barros steals GP500 pole.

Alex Barros collected his third - and the Emerson Pons team's fourth - pole position in the last four races with a late lap at Donington Park this afternoon.

The Brazilian, who scored top spot at both Mugello and Barcelona, found in excess of half a second to bump Friday pole-sitter Kenny Roberts to second, and left the American little to time to reply, despite improving his own mark in the hour. Barros comes to Donington on the back of a win at Assen two weeks ago, and continues to mark himself out as the man in form at the moment.

Roberts could have lost second place as well, and would have been the unwitting victim of Garry McCoy's tactics, as the Australian latched on to the tail of the Suzuki in the final minute and towed himself to a front row start. McCoy's improvement was enough to lift him from eleventh overnight, and knocked Max Biaggi off the front row.

Valentino Rossi fared slightly better than his Roman rival, and managed to hold onto fourth spot, despite being one of the few not to find time in the session.

Moving in the opposite direction, meanwhile, was Carlos Checa, who hauled himself on to the second row after appearing to struggle on Friday. Norick Abe likewise improved to seventh, but reigning world champion Alex Criville found time but lost places, finishing the session in eighth.

Biggest loser of the day, however, was Nobuatsu Aoki. The second Suzuki rider impressed on Friday to take fifth spot and line up behind team-mate Roberts, but could not improve while those around him found time, and slumped to eleventh. The remaining Repsol Hondas of Tady Okada and Sete Gibernau both passed the Japanese rider, who ended his session having to paddle out of the gravel trap in the company of countryman Abe.

Loris Capirossi sat out much of the morning practice to rest his injured hand, but could not better twelfth when it mattered, while the two Aprilias of Tetsuya Harada and Jeremy McWilliams concertina'ed in the lower order, as the Japanese dropped back. The other British entrants, John McGuinness and Phil Giles both made the cut, despite the Sabre Sport rider biting the dust again mid-session. Anthony Gobert found time on the Modenas, with making any ground up the gird, while Yoshiteru Konishi was spotted in the paddock rather than on the track.

Full times and grid line-up will appear at the end of the day's action.

Leading qualifiers - GP500.

1. Alex Barros Honda
2. Kenny Roberts Suzuki
3. Garry McCoy Yamaha
4. Valentino Rossi Honda
5. Max Biaggi Yamaha
6. Carlos Checa Yamaha
7. Norick Abe Yamaha
8. Alex Criville Honda