McWilliams: Podium possible if it rains.

Ulsterman Jeremy McWilliams was at home in the pouring rain to easily lead the way in the final qualifying session for the Polini French Grand Prix, at Le Mans, this afternoon (Saturday).

McWilliams, riding the Oxfordshire built two-stroke Proton KR machine, was nearly one second faster than World Champion and pole setter Valentino Rossi and is hoping the bad weather will continue tomorrow for what could well be the KR3 two-strokes final outing.

"I'm praying for rain because if it's wet I could get the two-stroke on the rostrum," revealed McWilliams. "If it's dry I would hope to finish in the top ten and so more rain please."

McWilliams will start from the third row of the grid after qualifying 12th in the dry first session on Friday, while Aoki will line-up on the fifth row after qualifying 20th.

The weather forecast for tomorrow is very mixed and there is a good chance it could rain - giving McWilliams and the British machine a real chance of victory.

If it happened it would the first two-stroke machine to win a MotoGP race, while McWilliams would become the first British rider to win a premier class GP since Barry Sheene in 1981.

However, while the two-stroke set the pace, the 39-year-old Ulsterman also completed a considerable number of laps on the team's brand new V5 four-stroke. His best lap on the V5 was less than two seconds slower than his KR3 time, and would have put him an impressive tenth overall in the wet session.

This was a remarkable achievement for a bike that had never even been round a corner before it arrived in France on Friday. Still using guessed-at settings and gearing, and with the engine in a basic state of tune, the promise is clear.

"The four-stroke was pretty good in the wet. It surprised me as much as anybody else. It's so smooth and easy to ride," commented Jeremy. "Of course it's bigger and clumsier than the two-stroke, but the lap time is there, and I wasn't going anywhere near as hard as I could have, because I didn't want to risk damaging my only new bike. We really needed those laps, to get a lot of data. It's a pretty good start, for a bike that only arrived and ran on a circuit for the first time yesterday."

Team-mate Aoki was third fastest this afternoon, despite saving his favoured tyre for tomorrow.

"I did two laps on the four-stroke than found some problem with the clutch, so I stopped to concentrate on the two-stroke," explained the Japanese. "Things are going quite well. This morning we tired a soft rear tyre, and I wanted to use it again this afternoon, but Bridgestone only have two each, so I must save it for tomorrow in case it rains. Their engineer put some cuts in a medium-soft rear for me this afternoon, but it was not as good as the soft one. I think I could have gone a second faster. Now we just need rain tomorrow."

"The data from that session on the four-stroke gained us three days," claimed Team Owner Kenny Roberts when asked about the 'bike swapping'. "We need all the time we can get (with the V5), because in seven or eight days we will be going to Italy for the next GP.

"We know we will have to change the power band - it's too broad now, and we need more at the top end," he revealed. "But we haven't even had to take a motor out yet this weekend, and we're a lot further along than we expected. I'll be praying for rain also tomorrow... but every time I do that it always turns out fine!"

The team plan to give the V5 its race debut at Mugello in two weeks, making tomorrows French Grand Prix possibly the last time that a 500cc two-stroke will grace the premier GP class.