Alonso beats Schumacher to Europe pole

Alonso set the pace in 1:29.819 in the final minute of qualifying to beat Germany's Michael Schumacher by less than two tenths of a second.

Schumacher's Brazilian Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa will start third ahead of his compatriot Rubens Barrichello in a Honda, and McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen.

BMW Sauber's Canadian Jacques Villeneuve will start eighth after putting in a storming time to snatch a top-ten spot with only 20 seconds of the second session remaining.

But he came under fire from Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella, who failed to make the cut. The Italian insisted that Villeneuve had blocked him on his final attempt and was angry to end up 13th.

Also eliminated from session two were Toyota's German Ralf Schumacher - who spun on his way to the 11th fastest time and Williams' Nico Rosberg - but the German will start last after changing his Cosworth engine earlier on and receiving a 10-place penalty as a result.

Behind Fisichella were Red Bull's David Coulthard, BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld and Toro Rosso's Vitantonio Liuzzi.

A timing problem at the end of the first session caused concern in the BMW Sauber garage.

Villeneuve was listed as 21st on the timesheets after having his fastest lap discounted when a red flag was thrown for no apparent reason.

The race officials then delayed the start of the second session by 10 minutes after diagnosing a problem with the timing system, which, when rectified, showed Villeneuve in his rightful 15th place.

Eliminated from qualifying after that first session were Red Bull's angry Austrian Christian Klien, Midland's Dutchman Christijan Albers, Toro Rosso's American Scott Speed, Midland's Portuguese Tiago Monteiro and the Super Aguri pair of Japanese Takuma Sato and French debutant Franck Montagny.

But every driver below 10th will move up at least one spot on the grid due to the penalties endured by Webber and Rosberg.

* Will drop 10-grid places due to engine change