Alonso Surprised to Grab Pole

The Spaniard upstaged the time of pre-event favourite Kimi Raikkonen, who has had to take a 10-place grid penalty for an engine change, to claim his second consecutive pole position slot.

And speaking afterwards, Alonso claimed that the result was a surprise - even though the team had made some major progress with the set-up of the R25 on Friday night.

"It was really, really good, but a little bit unexpected," said Alonso of his performance. "The car felt much better than yesterday and the team did an incredible job last night with different changes and the car was quick this morning.

"I think we went into qualifying very confident, but not that confident to get pole position. It was obviously a great result for us."

Alonso's apparent speed advantage over front-row starter Jenson Button bodes well for his chances of grabbing the win in Sunday's race, especially with Raikkonen's misfortune.

"The race is very long and many things can happen," added Alonso. "Hopefully the track will stay dry and we can have a good race. I am confident.

"What happened to Kimi is not fair but we have to do our race and so far we have the pole."