Alonso takes pole as Schumi struggles.

Fernando Alonso claimed his sixth pole position of the year, but only his first since June's Canadian Grand Prix, after splashing to top spot at the Shanghai International Circuit in China.

The Spaniard dominated all three parts of the knock-out session, taking full advantage of Michelin's apparent superiority in the unexpectedly wet conditions. While all teams were caught unawares by the onset of rain ahead of the vital session, following on from heavy overnight precipitation which left the track wet for third free practice, Alonso and Renault adapted best, claiming the fastest time in all three parts to ensure himself of the best possible start to what could be a vital race for the championship.

Just two points separate Alonso from Michael Schumacher in the title race, but five places will divide the pair on the grid in China after the seven-time world champion struggled to get any level of performance from his Bridgestone rubber in the wet conditions. Indeed, the German very nearly didn't make it through to the top ten shoot-out, having languished in 13th spot with less than two minutes on the clock.

However, in true Schumacher fashion, the Ferrari man pulled something special out of the bag and, having made the cut, dug deep for another impressive - in the circumstances - lap that proved good enough for the outside of row three.

Schumacher was left to do all that was possible to protect his championship chances, as team-mate Felipe Massa, having already suffered an engine change penalty, then failed to make it through to the final part of qualifying, condemning himself to a back row start on Sunday.

To make matters worse for the Scuderia, Renault locked out the front row, with Giancarlo Fisichella producing a late flier to knock Rubens Barrichello from P2 and line up alongside team-mate Alonso. With the Italian still in the hunt for third overall following Massa's non-score at Monza, there is all for him to play for tomorrow as well.

Barrichello looked good for a front row spot until the final couple of minutes, but had to settle for third after Fisichella's improvement. The Brazilian then found himself under attack from his own team-mate and, had Jenson Button managed to go one-thousandth of a second faster on his best lap, he would have started from P3. As it was, the two team-mates ended up with exactly the same time and, having set his mark earlier, Barrichello gets the nod for Sunday.

Michelin's superiority was underlined with Kimi Raikkonen completing a top five shut-out, the Finn overcoming a torrid morning session - in which he spun twice and failed to set a time - and a lack of laps from Friday to be a factor in qualifying. Although not a threat for pole - Alonso appeared to be the only driver capable of setting fastest time - Raikkonen could have been on row two, before ultimately settling for a spot alongside the man he will replace at Maranello next season.

Schumacher's move up the leaderboard meant that he split a potential all-silver third row, pushing Pedro de la Rosa, who spun midway through the final part of qualifying, down to seventh. The Spaniard proved quicker than both BMW Sauber drivers, with Nick Heidfeld taking eighth, six-tenths clear of team-mate Robert Kubica, as no other Bridgestone runners made it into the top ten.

With Kubica now an established member of the shoot-out 'club'. the honour of being revelation of qualifying fell to Robert Doornbos, who transcended the potential of his Red Bull RB2 to make it into the final part of the session. Although he could not lift himself above tenth once he had made it through, it was nonetheless an impressive performance from the Dutchman, who has not had to qualify an F1 car since racing at the same venue for Minardi last year.

Doornbos' showing put RBR team-mate David Coulthard in the shade somewhat, although the Scot, like many others, could claim to have been unlucky with the timing of their best run in part two of qualifying. With the conditions changing - for better and worse - all the time, track position proved important - and DC, along with Scott Speed and Tonio Liuzzi all saw potential top ten spots disappear as others found marginally more favourable grip. Speed eventually claimed a season-best eleventh for Toro Rosso, with team-mate Liuzzi helping to sandwich DC and Massa in twelfth and 13th.

With the 'wrong' rubber for the conditions, there was little danger of either Mark Webber or Nico Rosberg threatening those ahead of them, the pair only having escaped the first round cut because the similarly-shod Toyotas proved incapable of finding enough pace to haul themselves into the top 16. Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher each had one last attempt to make the grade following a red flag to recover Tiago Monteiro's stranded Spyker but, with temperatures cooling, were unable to do anything about their position.

Joining them in the bottom six were the two Spyker MF1s - disappointing after free practice performances from both drivers - and the Super Aguris, which continued to struggle after problems on Friday.All bar Takuma Sato will move up one position on the grid, however, with Massa's penalty restricting the Brazilian to a spot alongside his Japanese rival.