Alonso claims Canadian pole

Montreal - Defending world drivers' champion Fernando Alonso stormed to the pole position for the Canadian Grand Prix on Saturday.

Spaniard Alonso, 24, fended off a late surge from his teammate Giancarlo Fisichella to take the top spot in one minute 14.972 seconds - over two tenths of a second ahead of the Italian.

Alonso said: "It was a tough session because there were three of us pretty close, but pole position, great. It's very good for us, but honestly it is feeling pretty normal at the moment."

And Fisichella added: "I am happy with the second position. It was very hot and that worked for our car, but we did okay. I think we do have now a good position to try to win this race tomorrow now. That is the aim."

Behind the all-conquering Renaults, Finn Kimi Raikkonen was third for McLaren with Italian Jarno Trulli an impressive fourth for Toyota.

Alonso's nearest championship rival, German Michael Schumacher, could only manage fifth for Ferrari - a second off the pace.

The remainder of the top ten was completed by German Nico Rosberg in a Williams, Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya in a McLaren, the Hondas of Briton Jenson Button and Brazilian Rubens Barrichello, and Ferrari's Brazilian Felipe Massa.

The second part of qualifying saw Alonso set the fastest time of the weekend so far with a lap below the one minute 15 second barrier.

That was as exiting as it got though, with no surprise names missing the cut for the top-10 shoot-out, although the massed crowd went distinctly quieter when local hero Jacques Villeneuve missed the cut by just one place.

Also put out were Austrian Christian Klien in a Red Bull, Villeneuve's German team-mate Nick Heidfeld, another German Ralf Schumacher in a Toyota, and Italian Vitantonio Liuzzi, who qualified his Toro Rosso ahead of Briton David Coulthard's Red Bull.

There was high drama for Williams garage during the opening session though, as German Nico Rosberg put in a last-gasp lap to get through. But that dropped his Australian team-mate Mark Webber out of the safety zone and ensured that he would miss the top-16 cut for the second race in a row.

Eliminated behind Webber were American Scott Speed in a Toro Rosso, the Midland team-mates Tiago Monteiro, of Portugal and Christijan Albers from Holland, and the Super Aguri pair of Japanese Takuma Sato and Frenchman Franck Montagny.