Sete: The throttle stuck open... twice.

Sete Gibernau's best qualifying time came from yesterday when he was fourth fastest, and although he came within a few tenths of matching that time today he was left down in ninth as the rest of the field improved, while he was forced to stick with the old chassis instead of using the expected new one.

Both Suzuki riders tried the latest evolutionary chassis in the morning, but unsurprisingly discovered that the revised unit would require dialling in before it can even be fully assessed.

With the race tomorrow, they decided to leave that until two days of testing planned for after the race, and to stick with the more familiar older unit. Delivery of the new chassis was delayed when it was held up in customs at flood-hit Prague, had it been available from yesterday morning, they may well have persevered with it instead.

"This morning I ran off the track twice after the throttle stuck open, which is not too pleasant," said Gibernau with eyebrows raised. "It meant that we weren't able to run through the usual Saturday morning tests, so I had to do them in the afternoon instead - running half race distance and trying tyres and so on.

"That was more important than going for a lap time, and so I never did get the chance for that one fast lap for grid position. I was working on a steady race pace instead, and with race tyres I was lapping in 2:00, so really our position is not bad in terms of race pace and rhythm."

Suzuki Team Manager Garry Taylor found some promise from the days events: "Sete recovered well from his problems this morning, and his third row position is not so bad, especially considering the respectable and consistent times he was running on race tyres this afternoon."