Renault anticipates more

Once again Jarno Trulli was the quicker of the two drivers in qualifying, but despite a tidy lap and an excellent final sector the Italian trailed polesitter Ralf Schumacher by three-quarters of a second.

"I had a good lap, but couldn't repeat my time from this morning," said Trulli. "I think the hotter track conditions may have had something to do with it, and I think we will see some variation in strategies tomorrow. However, third is a good result, and the car has been competitive on the longer runs. This is the fourth race in a row that I have started from the second row or higher, and that obviously puts us in a strong position for tomorrow."

Alonso said: "I am happy with fifth, even though it is not as quick as I went this morning. On my out lap, I hit some debris from [Takuma] Sato's car, and then made a small mistake at Turn 8 on the qualifying lap, and we found that the car was damaged at the end of the run. I had a bit too much understeer to be really quick, but to be in the top five is enough to race well."

Executive director of engineering Pat Symonds hinted that the Renaults might have been carrying more fuel than some of their rivals.

"We have been quick all weekend, and third and fifth are good starting positions, bearing in mind our strategy," he said. "Some of our competitors challenged us hard today but as always, it will not be until well into the race that we will be able to make a definitive judgement as to the relative speeds of the cars."