CARL Fogarty is struggling to overcome jet-lap in his bid to finish the season in style.

The new world champion only arrived in Japan on Thursday night, just before Friday's practice. He said: "One area where we still have to improve performance is sleep,

because I'm still suffering from jet-lag."

And the effects started to take their toll in today's Superpole shoot-out. Fogarty was fastest after final qualifying but slipped to the second row of the grid after Superpole.

His Ducati colleague Troy Corser will start tomorrow's 13th and final round of the World Superbike championship from pole position.

The Australian was marginally faster than Japanese wild card rider Shinya Takeishi in the dramatic one-lap Superpole, held in sunny conditions at the 2.32-mile circuit in the north of Japan.

But the low sun also caused problems for some riders, especially Honda's Colin Edwards, who today announced that he and team-mate Aaron Slight would be back on the new VTR SP1 Hondas for next season's challenge to Fogarty.

Tomorrow's front row was completed by third-placed Akira Ryo on a factory Suzuki. Akira Yanagawa, a World Superbike regular, put his works Kawasaki into fourth place.

Qualifying times: 1 Troy Corser, Australia (Ducati) 1m 29.910s, 2 Shinya Takeishi, Japan (Kawasaki) 1m 30.048s, 3 Akira Ryo, Japan (Suzuki) 1m 30.089s, 4 Akira Yanagawa, Japan (Kawasaki) 1m 30.142s, 5 Carl Fogarty, GB (Ducati) 1m 30.269s, 6 Wataru Yoshikawa, Japan (Yamaha) 1m 30.347s, 7 Noriyuki Haga, Japan (Yamaha) 1m 30.357s, 8 Keiichi Kitigawa, Japan (Suzuki) 1m 30.375s, 9 Pier-Francesco Chili, Italy (Suzuki) 1m 30.695s, 10 Colin Edwards, USA (Castrol Honda) 1m 30.728s.

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