Alonso leads Renault front row in Canada

The Spaniard fended off a later surge from his teammate Giancarlo Fisichella to take the top spot in 1:14.972 - over two tenths of a second ahead of the Italian.

Behind the all-conquering Renaults, McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen was third with Toyota's Jarno Trulli an impressive fourth.

Alonso's nearest championship rival, Michael Schumacher, could only manage fifth for Ferrari - a second off the pace.

The remainder of the top ten was completed by Williams' Nico Rosberg, McLaren's Juan Pablo Montoya, the Hondas of Britain's Jenson Button and Brazilian Rubens Barrichello, and Ferrari's Felipe Massa.

The second part of qualifying saw Alonso set the fastest time of the weekend so far with a lap below the one minute 15-second barrier.

That was as exciting as it got though, with no surprise names missing the cut for the top-10 shoot-out, although the massed crowd went distinctly quieter when local hero Jacques Villeneuve missed the cut by just one place.

Also put out were Red Bull's Christian Klien, BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld, Toyota's Ralf Schumacher in a Toyota, and Vitantonio Liuzzi, who qualified his Toro Rosso ahead of David Coulthard's Red Bull.

There was high drama in the Williams garage during the opening session though, as Nico Rosberg put in a last-gasp lap to get through.

But that dropped his teammate Mark Webber out of the safety zone and ensured that he would miss the top-16 cut for the second race in a row.

Eliminated behind Webber were Toro Rosso's Scott Speed, Midland teammates Tiago Monteiro, and Christijan Albers, and the Super Aguri pair of Takuma Sato and Franck Montagny.