McWilliams pushes Rossi to the limit

The Ulsterman Jeremy McWilliams yesterday put in an extraordinary performance in provisional qualifying for the South African Grand Prix, knocking more than a second off his qualifying time here last year.

On his 500cc Proton KR two-stroke machine, despite being up against faster four-strokes, McWilliams was in determined mood in a session topped by the defending champion, Valentino Rossi.

But McWilliams admitted he would not be able to go any faster in today's final qualifying session. "That's about as good as it gets," he said. "I'd like to say I'll try and make up time in certain sections but I don't think it's possible because I'm pushing the tyres to the absolute limit. It's good fun embarrassing the four-strokes, although I actually feel a bit sorry for the bike because I'm pushing so hard."

Rossi took the provisional pole ahead of his fellow Italian Loris Capirossi on the Marlboro Ducati and the Spaniard Sete Gibernau, riding for the first time since the death of his team-mate Daijiro Kato, on the Telefonica Movistar Honda.

The Welsh teenager Chaz Davies was 17th quickest in the 250cc class on the Aprilia Germany machine as the Spaniard Fonsi Nieto topped the times on Repsol Aprilia.

Yorkshire's Chris Martin was 21st in the 125cc class on the Seedorf Racing Aprilia topped by Japan's Youichi Ui (Aprilia). Ashford's Leon Camier was 33rd and slowest on the Metasystems Honda.

Looking on unhappily was 22-year-old Chris Burns, from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, missing a second successive MotoGP race. At Suzuka three weeks ago he had qualified but did not race after his Harris WCM team ran out of engines. When he arrived here, Burns was told the FIM, the sport's governing body, had disqualified his team because of an infringement regarding a prototype motorcycle.