FERNANDO ALONSO thrilled his home fans when he qualified in second place for today’s Spanish Grand Prix. It came as a surprise because, even though he has turned in some impressive performances in practice, Alonso has consistently said that despite a series of improvements, his Renault is not .

World champion Kimi Raikkonen put his Ferrari on pole, with teammate Felipe Massa, coming off a victory at Bahrain, in third place. Robert Kubica qualified his BMW Sauber in fourth, while Lewis Hamilton had to be content with fifth on the grid, which would have been a huge disappointment for the Briton.

All eyes were on Alonso, who has previously dismissed his chances of a podium finish, never mind a race win, but in front of his home crowd he produced his best drive of the season.

“I didn’t expect it,” he said afterwards. “Absolutely not, but it was very exciting. I knew only Kimi was running behind, so I knew it was first row, something I didn’t expect, so I cannot be more happy.”

Nobody outside the Renault pit knows how much fuel he had on board, but he finished only 0.091sec behind Raikkonen, who set a time of 1min 21.813sec.

Hamilton’s McLaren teammate, Heikki Kovalainen, is just behind him in sixth, with the Red Bull of Mark Webber seventh and Jarno Trulli eighth in the Toyota. BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld is ninth, with the second Renault of Nelson Piquet Jr in the top 10 for the first time this season.

Honda’s Rubens Barrichello will start from 11th, followed by the Williams of Kazuki Nakajima, surprisingly out-qualifying Nico Rosberg for the first time this year.

Jenson Button is 13th in his Honda, David Coulthard is 17th in the Red Bull and Super Aguri’s Anthony Davidson starts 21st.

Standings

Drivers' title

1 K Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari 19pts
2 N Heidfeld (Ger) BMW 16
3 L Hamilton (GB) McLaren 14
4 R Kubica (Pol) BMW 14
5 H Kovalainen (Fin) McLaren 14
6 F Massa (Bra) Ferrari 10

Constructors' championship

1 BMW 30pts
2 Ferrari 29
3 McLaren 28
4 Williams 10
5 Toyota 8
6 Renault 6