On Saturday, Olivier Jacque took pole position on the two-stroke Yamaha with a time of 1:25.758 - his first pole position of 2002 and immediately his last of the season and his career. Second is Shinya Nakano, only being +0.080 seconds behind, then Max Biaggi in third +.0.117 seconds behind and in fourth Alex Barros who is +0.198 seconds behind. On the second row of the grid is Tohru Ukawa in fifth, teammate Valentino Rossi in sixth, Jeremy McWilliams in seventh and Garry McCoy in eighth. Akira Ryō enters as a wildcard for this race, José Luis Cardoso replaces Pere Riba who is still rehabilitating from a fracture on his left tibia after a fall during Saturday practice at the British round, Yukio Kagayama replaces Kenny Roberts Jr. who is still recovering from a surgery on his right arm and John Hopkins does not participate in the race after a crash at the final practice session caused him to injure his left hand and required surgery to be fixed.
