Highlights

Alonso gains pole position for British Grand Prix

(AP)
Updated: 2006-06-11 09:43

SILVERSTONE, England _ Fernando Alonso captured his fourth consecutive pole of the Formula One season and it didn't take long for him to share the credit.

Just after posting the fastest time in qualifying for the British Grand Prix Saturday, he thanked his Renault team over the car radio.

"Four times consecutive on pole is fantastic for us" Alonso said.

Alonso's Renault had a time of 1 minute, 20.253 seconds on the 5.1-kilometer (3.2-mile) Silverstone circuit.

Kimi Raikkonen of McLaren, who has finished third, second and third in the last three races here, came in second with 1:20.397 and Michael Schumacher was third in 1:20.574

It was the 13th career pole for Alonso, who has won the last two races and four of seven this season.

"I was really pleased to get pole today," Alonso said. "I made a little mistake on my first flying lap in the super-pole and I knew it was close with Michael. So we fitted another set of tires and I managed to do a better lap"

The qualifying was moved up 90 minutes to finish ahead of England's match against Paraguay at the World Cup. Fans stayed and cheered the English 1-0 victory watching on large screens usually reserved for the race.

Schumacher led the final practice on Saturday morning. After a slow start to the season, he has been coming on. He won two of the last four races.

"I did not expect such a gap to the pole time but now we have to see what these tenths really mean," Schumacher said.

"There s no reason not to believe that we have a package that can win. But we have to see if we can manage."

Fourth was Schumacher's Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa, 1:20.764. Jenson Button of England failed to make it past the first qualifying section and will start 19th. The Honda driver has not won in more than 105 races.