Alonso 'Extremely Confident' for Race

Alonso saw main pole challengers Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen fail to match his pace during Saturday's qualifying session and, with teammate Giancarlo Fisichella starting sixth, he is upbeat about Renault's chance.

"With the grid position we have, and with Giancarlo being also one of the top guys, I think we can have a strong race in our team," said Alonso. "Last year the R24 was not performing very well and this year we have a good car, so we are extremely confident to have a good race this year."

He added: "Last year I had the pole position here and it was the only one of the 2004 season. I came here with optimism and I was very confident with this year's cars and the characteristics of the Magny-Cours circuit.
 
"The whole weekend has been good us, the qualifying lap as well, and there were no mistakes - so everything went well today."

Alonso saw the late session challenges of Ferrari duo Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello fade in the final sectors of the lap - as the Spaniard claimed that his confidence grew with each corner.

"We always know that Magny-Cours is tight and we know that every tenth of a second is important," he said. "I pushed from the beginning and I felt that the car had a good balance in Turn 3 and Turn 5 - so that gave me extra confident. I was extremely happy with the lap."