Alonso heads McLaren front row

Fernando Alonso has won pole position for Sunday's Monza grand prix, just beating team-mate Lewis Hamilton to second.

Ferari's Felipe Massa is third with the BMW of Nick Heidfeld in fourth while Kimi Raikkonen, who survived a high speed crash in the morning, will start from fifth. He is using the spare car but has retained his race engine.

Alonso appeared to take the top spot with ease in one hot lap and had been heading for an even faster one but eased off when he learnt that Hamilton had not beaten his previous time.

At the other end of the table, Spyker's new B-spec car failed to lift the team from the bottom while Ralf Schumacher disappointed again, failing to make it past the first qualifying session and ending up in P18. Team-mate Jarno Trulli made it to ninth.David Coulthard also had a dismal session, ending up 20th but team mate Mark Webber climbed to 11th.

The following is tomorrow's grid and the final qualifying times:

1. Fernando Alonso McLaren-Mercedes 1:21.997 2. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:22.034 3. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:22.549 4. Nick Heidfeld BMW 1:23.174 5. Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:23.183 6. Robert Kubica BMW 1:23.446 7. Heikki Kovalainen Renault 1:24.102 8. Nico Rosberg Williams 1:24.382 9. Jarno Trulli Toyota 1:24.555 10. Jenson Button Honda 1:25.165 11. Mark Webber Red Bull 1:23.166 12. Rubens Barrichello Honda 1:23.176 13. Alexander Wurz Williams 1:23.209 14. Anthony Davidson Super Aguri 1:23.274 15. Giancarlo Fisichella Renault 1:23.325 16. Sebastian Vettel Toro Rosso 1:23.351 17. Takuma Sato Super Aguri 1:23.749 18. Ralf Schumacher Toyota 1:23.787 19. Vitantonio Liuzzi Toro Rosso 1:23.886 20. David Coulthard Red Bull 1:24.019 21. Adrian Sutil Spyker 1:24.699 22. Sakon Yamamoto Spyker 1:25.084