Renault off the pace on Friday

Alonso's best lap in Friday qualifying, a 1m22.809s tour, was more than two seconds away from Michael Schumacher's provisional pole. And Renault team-mate Jarno Trulli fared even worse, lapping 16th fastest in 1m23.100s.

"We are struggling with tyres," said Alonso. "But we still have a full day's work and I'm optimistic that we can improve our final position on the grid in tomorrow's qualifying."

Trulli, who qualified fifth in Brazil, put much of the blame on time lost in the morning practice: "We lost time with a few problems on the car and therefore this afternoon I felt that the car wasn't well balanced, which reflected in my poor lap time. We'll have to set to work on the car now, but I'm still confident that I can improve my grid position."

Engine Operations Manager Denis Chevrier summed up the team's disappointment: "Overall, a disappointing day for us. This morning's problems prevented us from developing our full programme and it's difficult to say where we really are and by how much we can improve. Today the gap to the others is significant and we have to understand why and react accordingly."