Alonso says qualifying changes nothing

Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton claimed the front row places ahead of Alonso, but both need the Spaniard to be further down the order in the race if either is to snatch the title, while Webber has to out-score the Ferrari by nine points.

But Alonso said nothing had really changed from the situation before the weekend.

"I think we are more or less in the same situation as we were two days ago before first practice," he said. "We know the situation, we know the four contenders.

"I think everything is on tomorrow's race, anything can happen and we saw in last few events things changed - in Korea the Red Bulls were very strong and lost the race with mechanical issues, in Brazil we saw some problems with pitstops.

"In the race anything can happen, we need to complete 55 laps without any problems. It will be a tough race, a long race, but we are in a position where we are very strong."

Alonso had been down in fifth place following the first Q3 runs before improving to row two. He blamed traffic for his poor first attempt in the pole shoot-out.

"Obviously it was a tough qualifying for everyone, changing positions in Q2 and Q3, you never know how competitive you are until Q3 finishes," said Alonso.

"The first attempt was not great, traffic in the first sector so I knew with the second tyres there was some potential to come so I pushed to the limit and third place is great."