MAGNY-COURS (France), July 2: Renault’s world championship leader Fernando Alonso seized pole position for the French Grand Prix for the second year in a row on Saturday.

The 23-year-old Spaniard lapped the Magny-Cours circuit in one minute 14.412 seconds for his third pole in 10 races this season.

Italian Jarno Trulli, who took Toyota’s first Formula One pole position at the last U.S. Grand Prix before the seven Michelin teams withdrew from the race for tyre safety reasons, joined Alonso on the front row. Trulli was 0.109 of a second slower.

McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen, Alonso’s closest title rival, was third fastest but will start 13th as a penalty for an unscheduled engine change after a failure in Friday’s practice.

That left Ferrari’s world champion Michael Schumacher, winner in France seven times, directly behind Alonso with BAR’s Takuma Sato alongside.

“We can do it, I think, this weekend,” said Alonso, winner of four races in 2005.

“The car has been performing really, really well all weekend...for tomorrow I think we are all very confident.”

Renault have not won their home grand prix as a full constructor since France’s four-times champion Alain Prost triumphed in 1983 during Formula One’s turbo era.

Ferrari’s Rubens Barrichello and Renault’s Giancarlo Fisichella lined up on the third row with BAR’s Jenson Button and McLaren’s Juan Pablo Montoya behind.

The Saubers of Brazilian Felipe Massa and Canadian Jacques Villeneuve followed.

Raikkonen won the Canadian Grand Prix from seventh on the starting grid but he faces a seemingly impossible task to prevent Alonso from stretching his 22 points lead in the championship.

“It was not the best way to start the weekend yesterday, to blow up the engine,” he said. “It’s going to cost us a lot this weekend.

“We just need to see where the others are stopping. I think we can hopefully get close to the podium, if not on the podium,” added the Finn.

The engine that failed was a new specification one for Sunday’s grand prix and McLaren replaced it with the previous version.

Sunday’s race marks the halfway point in the championship, the 10th race in a season of 19 grands prix. Alonso has 59 points to Raikkonen’s 37 and Schumacher’s 34.

French carmaker Renault, on home territory and with thousands of employees boosting the Magny-Cours crowd, lead McLaren and Ferrari by 13 points in the constructors’ championship.

Qualifying result

1. Fernando Alonso (Spain) Renault 1:14.412 2. Jarno Trulli (Italy) Toyota 1:14.521 3. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) McLaren 1:14.559 4. Michael Schumacher (Germany) Ferrari 1:14.572 5. Takuma Sato (Japan) BAR 1:14.655 6. Rubens Barrichello (Brazil) Ferrari 1:14.832 7. Giancarlo Fisichella (Italy) Renault 1:14.887 8. Jenson Button (Britain) BAR 1:15.051 9. Juan Pablo Montoya (Colombia) McLaren 1:15.406 10. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Sauber 1:15.566 11. Jacques Villeneuve (Canada) Sauber 1:15.699 12. Ralf Schumacher (Germany) Toyota 1:15.771 13. Mark Webber (Australia) Williams 1:15.885 14. Nick Heidfeld (Germany) Williams 1:16.207 15. David Coulthard (Britain) Red Bull 1:16.434 16. Christian Klien (Austria) Red Bull 1:16.547 17. Narain Karthikeyan (India) Jordan 1:17.857 18. Patrick Friesacher (Austria) Minardi 1:17.960 19. Tiago Monteiro (Portugal) Jordan 1:18.047 20. Christijan Albers (Netherlands) Minardi 1:18.335.—Reuters