Renault eyes race turnaround

Both drivers complained of understeer during the Saturday afternoon sessions as Alonso qualified with the ninth quickest time and Villeneuve the 14th. Both drivers will move up one place on the grid, however, thanks to Michael Schumacher's grid penalty.

Speaking after the session, Alonso said: "I am confident we can be more competitive tomorrow than we seemed this afternoon. The car was understeering a bit too much in the slow corners during qualifying but the overall balance was still quite good in spite of this.

"We will need to wait for the race to see what strategies our competitors have but I think things will be better for us. The R24 was setting constant and competitive times on the long practice runs we did yesterday and today."

Villeneuve was far more disappointed than Alonso about his performance, but still has his sights sets on a points-scoring finish on Sunday.

"I had a bad lap - it was as simple as that," he said. "The car was handling better this morning but then started understeering on the qualifying lap and I couldn't hook things up as I would have liked. Tomorrow's race will be demanding but I am still hoping for a points finish."