Rain hands Rossi pole.

Continued rain at Jerez today meant that Valentino Rossi's provisional pole time, set in yesterday's dry first qualifying session, went unchallenged today - handing the reigning world champion his second Yamaha pole from two attempts.

Yesterday, Rossi delivered yet another a crushing blow to his rivals by dominating first qualifying with a sensational time of 1min 40.818secs - 1.165secs inside Loris Capirossi's previous pole record, and enough to hold off a late challenge from home favourite Sete Gibernau by 0.38secs.

Carlos Checa and Max Biaggi also posted quick times in the dying stages, but without ever seriously threatening Rossi's dominance: Checa, who was 0.229secs slower than Gibernau, joined his fellow Spaniard on the provisional three-man front row to the delight of the gathering local crowd.

Biaggi was left fourth, alongside Camel Honda team-mates Makoto Tamada, to head up the second row whilst Kawasaki's Shinya Nakano, who like Tamada uses Bridgestone tyres, made it a good day for the Japanese tyre manufacturer by clinching sixth. Americans Nicky Hayden and Colin Edwards line up next to each other on the provisional grid in seventh and eighth respectively and were joined on the third row by Honda colleague Alex Barros.

But the hot pace at the front meant bad news for WCM riders Michel Fabrizio and Chris Burns, who failed to lap within the 107% limit of pole time, although Kurtis Roberts comfortably made the cut on his Proton KR after returning to action from a shoulder injury which forced him out of the first round of the season.

Into this morning and the feared rain arrived with a vengeance, allowing the likes of Ducati's Troy Bayliss to return to the sharp end of the field - but the Australian (second), Gibernau (third) and Biaggi (fourth) were once again left trailing Rossi, while Shane Byrne (fifth) and Fabrizio (tenth) caused an upset.

However, soon after the session finished the clouds cleared and warm weather looked likely to quickly dry the circuit, with only a few damp patches remaining as the 125cc session began. But the moisture was enough to prevent significant improvements (and cause several spectacular highsides) in the eighth-litre category - with further rain then falling just before the premier-class riders returned to the track.

Despite frequent sunshine breaking through the cloud, light rain would continue occasionally for the rest of the hour, turning the final qualifier into a test session since, with similar weather expected tomorrow, the teams and riders needed to quickly optimise their set-ups for what now looks like being the first wet - or at least damp - race of the year.

Emerging on top in the closing minutes was Kenny Roberts, the American finding a strong set-up for his Suzuki on what was increasingly a merely damp - rather than wet - circuit to hold off Bayliss by 1.3secs, while Nakano continued to impress by taking third for Bridgestone and Kawasaki.

A strong session for Aprilia saw Byrne and team-mate McWilliams fifth and sixth, while Rossi - who just held a near highside with 15mins to go - settled for sixteenth, claiming the surface was neither wet nor dry enough to give useful information.

In an unfortunate twist, this afternoon's weather meant both WCM riders have not qualified for Sunday's race - unless they get special permission.

Final qualifying (wet) - top ten:

1. Roberts
2. Bayliss
3. Nakano
4. Barros
5. Byrne
6. McWilliams
7. Biaggi
8. Abe
9. Gibernau
10. Melandri