Alonso battles rain to win pole

SHANGHAI, China – Fernando Alonso captured a crucial pole position for today’s Chinese Grand Prix, where he hopes to bolster his narrow Formula One championship lead over Michael Schumacher.

With rain falling, defending champ Alonso led Saturday’s qualifying with a time of 1 minute, 44.360 seconds at the 3.387-mile Shanghai International Circuit, almost 10 seconds slower than Friday’s time in dry conditions. Alonso holds a 108-106 points lead over seven-time champion Schumacher.

Alonso’s Renault teammate Giancarlo Fisichella was second in 1:44.992.

Ferrari’s Schumacher couldn’t master the wet conditions and finished sixth, characterizing the qualifying session as a “damage-limitation operation.”

“We still have the race ahead of us and from the third row of the grid,” said Schumacher, who plans to retire at the end of this season. “We can still aim for a good result, given that in the dry, we have proved to be very competitive.”

Rain threatened throughout the morning, then fell harder just as qualifying began. In bad news for Ferrari, whose Bridgestone tires have performed poorly in wet conditions, more rain is forecast for today’s 56-lap race.

It was the sixth pole for Alonso this season.