Alonso ends Ferrari's pole drought

Felipe Massa could not quite make it an all-Ferrari front row but took third, with Jenson Button's McLaren splitting the red cars and starting second.

Red Bull had its worst qualifying session of the season, with Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel back in an unaccustomed fourth and sixth, sandwiching championship leader Lewis Hamilton's McLaren.

Massa and Alonso had been fastest in Q1 and Q2 respectively, and when Q3 began Alonso immediately made his intentions clear with a 1m21.962s provisional pole lap - 0.297 seconds clear of his rivals.

Alonso's second run was less successful and he aborted the lap, but it did not matter, for he had enough in hand to hang on to pole despite Button improving to a 1m22.084s as he cemented his second place.

Behind Massa, Webber jumped ahead of Hamilton - who unlike Button, is not using McLaren's F-duct this weekend - while Vettel was 0.7s off the pace in sixth.

Seventh went to Mercedes' Nico Rosberg, whose team-mate Michael Schumacher had another mediocre qualifying run and will start 12th.

Williams got both cars into Q3, with Nico Hulkenberg taking eighth and Rubens Barrichello 10th, split by Renault's Robert Kubica.

There would be no repeat of Force India's brilliant 2009 Monza form. Adrian Sutil was only 11th, missing a Q3 spot by 0.057s, while Tonio Liuzzi suffered a loss of power early in Q1 and sat out most of the session, leaving him 20th on the grid.

The Saubers and Toro Rossos were also knocked out in Q2, along with Renault's Vitaly Petrov - whose 15th place may yet be in jeopardy after a potential blocking incident with Timo Glock at the start of Q1.

Lotus and Virgin proved closely-matched in the new teams' battle before strong last laps from the Lotus pair pulled them clear - and put them ahead of the hobbled Liuzzi. Jarno Trulli team-mate Heikki Kovalainen to 'class pole' in 18th.

Pos  Driver         Team                    Q1        Q3        Q3
 1.  Alonso         Ferrari                 1:22.646  1:22.297  1:21.962
 2.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes        1:23.085  1:22.354  1:22.084
 3.  Massa          Ferrari                 1:22.421  1:22.610  1:22.293
 4.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault        1:23.431  1:22.706  1:22.433
 5.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes        1:22.830  1:22.394  1:22.623
 6.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault        1:23.235  1:22.701  1:22.675
 7.  Rosberg        Mercedes                1:23.529  1:23.055  1:23.027
 8.  Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth       1:23.516  1:22.989  1:23.037
 9.  Kubica         Renault                 1:23.234  1:22.880  1:23.039
10.  Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth       1:23.695  1:23.142  1:23.328
11.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes    1:23.493  1:23.199
12.  Schumacher     Mercedes                1:23.840  1:23.388
13.  Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari          1:24.273  1:23.659
14.  Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1:23.744  1:23.681
15.  Petrov         Renault                 1:24.086  1:23.819
16.  Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1:24.083  1:23.919
17.  de la Rosa     Sauber-Ferrari          1:24.442  1:24.044
18.  Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth          1:25.540
19.  Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth          1:25.742
20.  Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes    1:25.774
21.  Glock          Virgin-Cosworth         1:25.934
22.  di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth         1:25.974
23.  Senna          HRT-Cosworth            1:26.847
24.  Yamamoto       HRT-Cosworth            1:27.020

All Timing Unofficial