BARCELONA, Spain, April 26, 2008 (AFP) - An emotional Fernando Alonso said he "could not feel any happier" on Saturday after claiming a surprise second place on the grid for Renault ahead of Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix.

The Renault driver, whose team have endured a shaky start to the season, was out-paced only by defending drivers' world champion Finn Kimi Raikkonen, who was less than a tenth of a second faster in his Ferrari.

Spaniard Alonso felt the emotions of a huge 115,000 crowd at the Circuit de Catalunya rising in his own throat as he crossed the line to clinch a front row starting place on the grid against all expectations.

"I think it was very exciting when I crossed the line because I knew the time was good," said Alonso.

"I knew that only Kimi was running behind so when I crossed the line I knew it was front row in the worst case," he explained.

"So, that is something we didn't expect at all - not in this race or maybe during the whole season, so I cannot be more happy than I am now."

Renault introduced several updates to their car for this weekend's race and although Alonso played down the improvements it was obvious both he and his team-mate Brazilian Nelson Piquet were much more competitive.

Alonso added: "The car feels better. I am happy with the car and we made a step forward, no doubts. We found more at the test when we compared the changes back-to-back and we saw here a clear result, a big improvement in the car.

"All weekend, it has been difficult with the track conditions. For the race, we will see what we can do. But this second place of today is more than we expected for the whole weekend."

Alonso, champion in 2005 and 2006, confessed that seeing all the hard work of the team during the winter paying off was a fantastic feeling.

He said: "Unbelievable. It is difficult to describe or say anything because the team did a huge effort to improve the car and we keep doing it, working in Enstone and in France as well.

"We started this season with a bit of disappointment. In the winter we expected to be stronger than we were in the first three races, but now there's no time to relax.

"We need to work hard, there are more aggressive steps coming in the next few races so we must work step by step and that makes me happy and optimistic for the future."