Alonso expecting to fight for sixth place

The 115,000-strong crowd were delighted after seeing Alonso put on an unexpectedly strong qualifying performance on Saturday, finishing only behind world champion Kimi Raikkonen, who edged his rival by 0.091 seconds.

But the two-time champion has played down expectations for the race, suggesting he is carrying less fuel than his main rivals.

"I think being in second place on the grid is a bit unreal, because we probably have less fuel than the rest," Alonso told Spanish television after qualifying. "We are not suddenly between the two Ferraris.

"Q3 depends a lot on the fuel, but in the previous session we were all running in the same conditions and in the previous race we were around ninth or tenth. Here I was fourth so that's the best news apart from the front row start.

"When we saw we were fastest we decided to try and have a good qualifying and start from a better position than we expected, because the first row was never our goal. But let's enjoy it this afternoon and hope that tomorrow we don't lose many positions."

The Renault driver said finishing in sixth place would be a "dream" for him following his struggles in the last race in Bahrain.

"We'll see. If I have to bet I'd say sixth or seventh. I was fourth in Q2, with everybody in the same conditions, but I had two sets of tyres.

"When I only had one I was around eighth so sixth for me would be a dream, seeing that in the last race fighting for 10th. It would be a big jump. Finishing higher than sixth would be unexpected but a lot better for everybody."