Raikkonen loses 10 grid places

The Spaniard, who leads the driver's race by 22 points, gave Renault cause to celebrate on their home track with a time of one minute 14.442 seconds.

Toyota's Jarno Trulli was second, with Kimi Raikkonen third, although the Finn will drop back 10 places on the grid.

Ferrari's Michael Schumacher was fourth quickest at the Magny-Cours circuit.

I think we are all very confident Fernando Alonso

But the German will be promoted to the front of the second row after Raikkonen suffered an engine failure during Friday practice, incurring a penalty.

Schumacher will be joined by BAR's Takuma Sato, who put in an impressive lap, while Ferrari team-mate Rubens Barrichello lines up with the second Renault driver Giancarlo Fisichella on the third row.

Briton Jenson Button follows them with Juan Pablo Montoya.

In an unusual qualifying session, the Minardis and Jordans found themselves running late on because of their artificially-inflated race positions at the six-car US Grand Prix.

But none of the four drivers were able to take advantage of the improved later conditions and they finished in their customary slots at the back of the field.

I don't think anyone can stop Fernando Alonso from winning From TN Have your say on Five Live

Alonso said afterwards: "We didn't change our approach at all after Kimi had his problem yesterday and today we are on pole.

"We did the fastest laps and it doesn't matter what the others are doing."

He added that the drivers were determined to repair some of the damage by by the US Grand Prix fiasco.

"For sure we will do a good show for the people and we will try to enjoy our ourselves as we didn't in America."