Alonso edges Schumacher to take pole

Renault's world champion Fernando Alonso beat Michael Schumacher to take his first pole position of the season at the European Grand Prix yesterday.

Ferrari's Schumacher, the seven times world champion appearing in front of his home crowd after winning the last race, will start alongside after being thwarted in his bid for a second pole in succession.

Alonso, absent from the front row since he took pole in China last October, has won two of the four races so far this season and finished second in the other two.

The Spaniard leads Schumacher, his closest rival in the standings after the German's San Marino Grand Prix victory, by 15 points.

"Qualifying has been a little bit difficult in the first four races, sometimes because of the traffic and sometimes because I did mistakes also," said Alonso. "Today we had the clear laps and we managed to make some changes to the car to improve... I think we are in a much better position than the previous race."

Felipe Massa was third fastest for Ferrari and, as at Imola two weeks ago, forms an all-Brazilian second row with Honda's Rubens Barrichello.

"We've got a strong package, good race pace so it should be interesting for us," said Schumacher. "I am pretty happy for tomorrow," he added. "There is no reason why we should not be strong anywhere, any time."

Finland's Kimi Raikkonen qualified fifth for Mercedes-powered McLaren's 600th race while Honda's Jenson Button was sixth.

Villeneuve punished

Canadian Jacques Villeneuve was demoted one place to ninth on the starting grid after stewards ruled he had impeded Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella.

Fisichella, who stalked down to the BMW Sauber garages to remonstrate with Villeneuve after failing to make the cut in the second qualifying session, will still start behind the Canadian in 11th place.

The F1 stewards ruled that Villeneuve had committed an offence by impeding Fisichella but accepted that it may not have been deliberate.