Emotional Alonso surprised by pace

The Renault driver, whose team have endured a shaky start to the season, was only outqualified by world champion Kimi Raikkonen, who was less than a tenth quicker than the Spaniard.

Renault introduced several updates in their car for this weekend's race, and although Alonso played down the improvements before today's session, the two-time champion and teammate Nelsinho Piquet were very competitive all day.

Alonso admitted he did not expect to be so strong, not even later in the season.

"I think it was very exciting when I crossed the line because I knew the time was good," said Alonso.

"I knew that only Kimi was running behind so when I crossed the line I knew it was front row in the worst case, so that is something we didn't expect at all, not in this race or maybe during the whole season, so I cannot be more happy than I am now."

The Renault driver, winner in Spain in 2006, is adamant his team have taken a significant step forward.

"The car feels better. I am happy with the car and we made a step forward no doubts. We found more at the test when we compared the changes back-to-back and we saw here a clear result, a big improvement in the car.

"All weekend it has been difficult with the track conditions. For the race we will see what we can do. But this second place of today is more than we expected for the whole weekend."

Alonso confessed seeing all the hard work during the winter paying off was a fantastic feeling.

"Unbelievable. It is difficult to describe or say anything because the team did a huge effort to improve the car and we keep doing it, working in Enstone and in France as well.

"We started season with a bit of disappointment. In the winter we expected to be stronger than we were in the first three races, but now there's no time to relax. We need to work hard, there are more aggressive steps coming in the next few races so we must work step by step and that makes me happy and optimistic for the future."