The Spaniard, but not his teammate Nelson Piquet, was fitted with a 'double diffuser' for qualifying, and he said qualifying on the front row was "unbelievable".

But when the FIA published the car weights on Saturday evening, it emerged that Alonso's car has just 32 kilograms of fuel on board -- more than 20 kilos less than the Brawns.

The Red Bulls are also quite light: pole sitter Sebastian Vettel is just 8kg heavier than Alonso's car, while Mark Webber is carrying two additional kilos than his teammate.

Though Button and Barrichello again led the way in Q1, the fact that they trailed Red Bull rivals Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber in the low-fuel Q2 session – the first time over the course of the weekend when everyone’s true pace really becomes apparent – was perhaps a warning sign that this time they would not be having things quite all their own way. 

Ranking by Grid Position
1. Vettel 644.0kg
2. Alonso 637.0kg
3. Webber 646.5kg
4. Barrichello 661.0kg
5. Button 659.0kg
6. Trulli 664.5kg
7. Rosberg 650.5kg
8. Raikkonen 673.5kg
9. Hamilton 679.0kg
10. Buemi 673.0kg
11. Heidfeld 679.0kg
12. Kovalainen 697.0kg
13. Massa 690.0kg
14. Glock 652.0kg
15. Nakajima 682.7kg
16. Bourdais 690.0kg
17. Piquet 697.9kg
18. Kubica 659.0kg
19. Sutil 648.0kg
20. Fisichella 679.5kg

Ranking By Weight
1 . F. Alonso - Renault R29 - 637.0
2 . S. Vettel - Red Bull Renault RB5 - 644.0
3 . M. Webber - Red Bull Renault RB5 - 646.5
4 . A.  Sutil - Force India Mercedes VJM02 - 648.0 *
5 . N. Rosberg - Williams Toyota FW31 - 650.5
6 . T. Glock - Toyota TF109 - 652.0 *
7 . J. Button - Brawn Mercedes BGP 001 - 659.0
8 . R. Kubica - BMW Sauber F1.09 - 659.0 *
9 . R. Barrichello - Brawn Mercedes BGP 001 - 661.0
10 . J. Trulli - Toyota TF109 - 664.5
11 . S. Buemi - Toro Rosso Ferrari STR4 - 673.0
12 . K. Raikkonen - Ferrari F60 - 673.5
13 . L. Hamilton - McLaren Mercedes MP4-24 - 679.0
14 . N. Heidfeld - BMW Sauber F1.09 - 679.0 *
15 . G. Fisichella - Force India Mercedes VJM02 - 679.5 *
16 . K. Nakajima - Williams Toyota FW31 - 682.7 *
17 . S. Bourdais - Toro Rosso Ferrari STR4 - 690.0 *
18 . F. Massa - Ferrari F60 - 690.0 *
19 . H. Kovalainen - McLaren Mercedes MP4-24 - 697.0 *
20 . N. Piquet - Renault R29 - 697.9 *

* Declared weight (outside of top ten)