Alonso a shock to old order

Malaysian Grand Prix: Youngest driver on pole and Renault's one-two set posers for the rest

So, were the Renaults really running a similar fuel load to their rivals? Once again Max Mosley's new regulations dealt a different grid, but you could not argue that the final minutes of qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix were not good theatre.

Two questions were in the air as a largely dull session was meandering to a close. Would Rubens Barrichello or Michael Schumacher dislodge Fernando Alonso and Jarno Trulli from the front row? Would a dramatic drop in track temperature – from an insufferable 49C when Alonso made his run and 46C when Trulli went out four cars later, to a merely stifling 38C when Schumacher was the last man to go – be sufficient to overcome the Anglo-French cars?

In the end, neither Ferrari driver got close to beating Trulli's 1min 37.217sec. Barrichello's 1:37.579 was only good enough for fifth best; Schumacher's 1:37.393 left him third. Which meant that Alonso – only 21 years old and starting just his 19th grand prix – was still sitting pretty on pole, courtesy of his 1:37.044.

It made a great story. Here is a hotshoe kid who only came into Formula One in 2001 with Minardi, sat out 2002 as Renault's test driver, and then became the bogeyman of the British press in Magny-Cours last year when he was officially revealed to be the man who would replace Jenson Button for 2003.

But there's more than that. He is also the youngest polesitter, ousting Rubens Barrichello (Belgium 1994), and the first Spaniard to take such honours. Andalucia has produced some pretty average wheelmen, but it was clear from the moment that Alonso broke into F1 that he was special. Yesterday he took his opportunity in both hands and produced a superb lap. Trulli was on a strategy that would call for him to make his first pit-stop slightly later, and this meant that his car was a little heavier, but it was still a praiseworthy effort.

"It is a very special day," Alonso said. "It feels like a dream. I was aiming for a good place on the grid but expected to see my name slipping down the list at the end of the session. But it didn't happen, and I got a great surprise when Michael finished his lap."

When Schumacher Snr is not the leading light of qualifying there is usually a valid explanation. On this occasion it might have been the vagaries of individual fuel loads, and the minimisation of driving errors.

Yet Renault's technical director, Mike Gascoyne, was adamant that the team had not been shooting for pole. "We expected to be fifth and sixth, thereabouts," he said. "I promise you, we are not on anything other than a standard strategy."

Which meant a two-stop race, not the three many had surmised, given the performance of the blue-and-yellow cars. But take into account that 100bhp is worth around 1.2sec a lap, and Renault's well-documented lack of power compared to their major rivals, and the plot got thicker rather than clearer. It said a lot for the car's chassis.

In the forensic exercise that F1 has become, you could invert the question. If the Renaults were not quick, then why were the others slow?

Michael Schumacher had a spin on Saturday morning that damaged his car's undertray, and later in the session had to have the complete gearbox changed after the on-board telemetry indicated that the clutch was over-heating. Then, just before qualifying, another problem obliged the team to change the replacement gearbox.

The champion said his car was not as fine-tuned as he would have liked, but added: "I am not bothered about my run of poles being interrupted. Pole is a fantastic bonus, but the new rules mean you have to focus on the race."

Barrichello said that was what he had been doing in qualifying, David Coulthard said that he was troubled by a little bit of understeer that hampered his McLaren's acceleration out of corners. Team-mate Kimi Raikkonen locked his rear wheels braking for the hairpin and lost a bit of time. Juan Pablo Montoya in the Williams would have liked a bit more front wing for qualifying, but admitted that he would not need it for the race and had compromised for the main goal. And his partner, Ralf Schumacher, again cracked under the pressure of single-lap qualifying and managed only 17th after an unimpressive, error-ridden lap.

That left Nick Heidfeld a satisfied sixth for Sauber Petronas, and Jenson Button a slightly disappointed ninth but very pleased to have outqualified his BAR team-mate, Jacques Villeneuve, after the French-Canadian made an error. Their war of words has continued unabated, with the Englishman being branded "weak" by Ville-neuve, and responding by accusing the former champion of being "pathetic".

Once again, qualifying threw up more questions than answers. "I not saying anything," Gascoyne said, "but hypothetically you might stop in the race a little earlier yet nevertheless do a standard two-stop strategy..."

Almost certainly that was Renault's ploy for the race, but with their cars running well enough to opt for the softest Michelin rubber, and others struggling to make the harder compounds survive in punishing track temperatures, the race, at least by the end of qualifying, held the promise of continued unpredictability.