Jeremy McWilliams qualified 12th for Sunday's Italian MotoGP at Mugello.

The Northern Ireland rider's best lap was 1.49 seconds behind Valentino Rossi who grabbed his fifth straight pole position.

The Belfast rider, who picked up his first points a fortnight ago in Le Mans, was .01 behind his Proton team-mate Nobuatsu Aoki who qualified 11th.

World champion Rossi shaved more than a second off Testuya Harada's record set in 1999 with a time of 1:51.528.

The Honda rider beat countryman Max Biaggi, of Yamaha, by over half a second with Spain's Carlos Checa, also on a Yamaha, in third.

Italian Loris Capirossi completes the front row with Frenchman Olivier Laconi in fifth.

Rossi has won three of the season's four races with team-mate Tohru Ukawa claiming the other victory.