Other Troy reigns in Spain

Under the 'wet rules' the riders were allowed 12 laps instead of the usual single one.

Bayliss bounced back from his finger amputation to record a time of 1:51.982 on his Ducati Xerox F07 early in the session and take the lead from Xaus, whose early mark of 1:52.085 on the F06 was also the best of his afternoon. Bayliss was fastest in the dry qualifying session on Friday.

On the Alto Evolution Honda bike Australian Brookes was over 0.1 of a second behind second and 0.2 in arrears of Bayliss, capping a brilliant performance.

Corser, who had previously led the grid at the circuit on four different occasions in his career, would have set a record for any circuit had he led this year. However he had to settle with a place on the front row as he clocked 1:52.733 on the Yamaha Italia.

Toseland on the Ten Kate Honda leads the overall standings by five points from Max Biaggi. The former world champion managed to claim fifth after a slow start in 1:52.801, while the Italian MotoGP veteran was way down in 12th with 1:55.196 on his Alstare Suzuki.

Noriyuki Haga, third in the standings with Yamaha Italia, also struggled down in seventh behind Lorenzo Lanzi, fifth overall on the Ducati Xerox.