Alonso confident of win despite no pole

Alonso, winner of his home race from pole position last year, will start alongside the Brazilian Ferrari driver, who beat the local hero by just 0.030 seconds in the dying moments of qualifying.

The McLaren driver, on top of the championship standings after the first three races, admitted he was still happy despite no pole position, and he is optimistic he will be able to fight for victory tomorrow.

"It has been a very good weekend for us so far with the car performing well, the front row of the grid is confirmation of how competitive the car is and how competitive the package is," said Alonso.

"We are confident for tomorrow and we can see a very good race for the battle for the victory."

"We saw yesterday and today a really close fight as we expected, and as I said, this qualifying was again another confirmation of how tight things are between Ferrari and McLaren, and of course from the driver point of view we have to be 100 percent because the championship is really tight, so you have to do 100 percent every lap of the day."

He added: "It was very good. Both sets of tyres and both laps were very, very similar. There was nothing more I think that I could get from the car, I was driving at the maximum. Both laps pretty good and I am happy with front row."

The Spaniard's teammate Lewis Hamilton, tied on points with Alonso, will start the race from fourth place.