Alonso delighted with 'perfect' result

The Spanish driver took his fifth consecutive pole position to set himself perfectly to fight for his maiden podium at the Montreal circuit.

Alonso finished ahead of teammate Giancarlo Fisichella, who completed the first front row lockout of the season for the French squad.

"It has been tough competition between us three, Kimi and Giancarlo, all weekend and in qualifying," said Alonso. "It is a good result for us and a normal result. Us three have been the quickest always, also in qualifying, so hopefully tomorrow we can be on the podium.

"The result is perfect for us, one and two, and now we have to finish the job tomorrow."

Alonso's strong day was made even better by the poor performance of Michael Schumacher, his main rival in the title battle.

The German Ferrari driver, tipped as one of the favourites to win in Canada, could only finish in fifth place, over a second behind pole-setter Alonso.

The Spaniard was proud of his team.

"I think we have been really quick, really competitive in the first half of the season and in the ninth race to be get the first front row for Renault shows the team keeps developing the car," he added.

"I am happy and proud of the job of the team and I thought these two races would be hard for them."

Fisichella was also happy with the result, despite losing out to Alonso.

"I am happy about the performance we had today," said the Italian. "First and second for Renault is great. I am happy about second position and hopefully we have a good strategy.

"I think we have a good chance to score a lot of points, get on the podium and hopefully win the race."