Alonso's lap of one minute 29.819 seconds was marginally quicker than Ferrari's Michael Schumacher.

Schumacher's team-mate Felipe Massa took third on the grid. Rubens Barrichello out-quali"ed Honda teammate Jenson Button taking fourth place to the Englishman's sixth. Kimi Raikkonen will start "fth.

ENGLISH BOOST FOR IRELAND'S CRICKETERS
England A's early victory over Sri Lanka has given a timely boost to the Ireland cricket team. The win in three days has meant that Middlesex's two A players, including Irishman Ed Joyce, can return to the side for today's C&G game against Hampshire, which frees Eoin Morgan to play for Ireland. Morgan has been called up by his county . . . who have first call on his services . . . in the absence of Joyce and Owais Shah. Had he played for Middlesex he would have been unable to play for Ireland in the five remaining games in the competition.

Ireland take on Essex at Chelmsford today, fresh from their excellent performances last weekend when they beat Gloucestershire and ran Glamorgan close. Coach Adrian Birrell makes two changes, bringing in John Mooney and William Porterfield for Adrian McCoubrey and Paul Mooney.

KUPER ADMITS IRELAND WELL OFF TOP LEVEL
The coach of the Irish women's hockey team, Riet Kuper, pointed to the professionalism of the opposition as the reason why Ireland "nished in eighth position out of 12 teams at last week's World Cup qualifying tournament in Rome.

"It was a case of professionals against amateurs. It would take three years of collective training at the same professional level to bring our players up to that standard, " Kuper said. Ireland "nished the week with a 2-1 loss to New Zealand on Friday.

MOURINHO PLAYS DOWN INTEREST IN TEVEZ
Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho has played down speculation that he travelled to South America last week solely to watch Argentina's Carlos Teves in action.

Teves played for Sao Paulo club Corinthians against River Plate in the Copa Libertadores . . .
South America's equivalent of the Champions League.

"People can say what they like, but there are 22 players in this match worth watching, " Mourinho said. "I go to the game because it is South America's equivalent of the Champions League and it is a great tournament." Tevez moved from Boca Juniors to Corinthinas 18 months ago for £10m and his stock is expected to rise during this summer's World Cup.

TURN UP FOR THE BOOKS AT HAYDOCK FOR PIPE
Martin Pipe scored twice from retirement at Haydock Park yesterday as Westender and Acambo landed choice victories, despite the fact that both were actually trained by his son David.

Although Pipe Snr officially handed over the reins last week, his son David's training licence is yet to be approved and so the official results will list Martin Pipe as the official trainer of both winners.

IRELAND BEATEN IN WATERPOLO QUALIFIERS Ireland lost their third match in succession at the European junior waterpolo qualifying championships at UL yesterday.

Ireland were beaten 8-5 by Belarus. The six nation event concludes today.