Alonso's step into the unknown

After outpacing Ferrari's Michael Schumacher by a quarter of a second in qualifying, Alonso expects to have his work cut out in the race itself.

"It's going to be a tough race," said Alonso. "When we race on short circuits like this the times are always very close. It will be very interesting from a strategy and tyre point of view. No-one got a chance to do long runs on the tyres yesterday [due to rain], so tomorrow will be a surprise for all of us. We hope that luck is on our side.

"The car has been quick all weekend, and pole position gives me a solid base for tomorrow's race. I did a very good lap: the car was understeering a bit too much at low speed, but it was very stable in the high-speed corners. I am happy to be on pole, but the main job is still to come."

Pat Symonds, Renault's engineering ace, commented: "In spite of yesterday's rain, the cars have been reasonably well-balanced from the start, which meant that we could concentrate more on fine-tuning this afternoon. This work has resulted in a satisfactory qualifying position: Fernando's lap was excellent, and Jarno also performed extremely well.

"What's more, this afternoon demonstrated exactly how exciting the current qualifying format can be and, of course, we still have to learn exactly what strategy choices our rivals have made."