The McLaren driver, who was unable to run in first Friday practice after another engine failure, had his best qualifying performance since last year's Hungarian Grand Prix, finishing as 'best of the rest' behind Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull.

Alonso had outqualified teammate Stoffel Vandoorne by half a second in Q1, the Belgian finishing down in 19th place.

Although the Spaniard - who will race in the Indianapolis 500 this month - insisted the goal was to score points on Sunday, he said qualifying had been "beautiful".

"Maybe on the oval I learned how to go quick on the straights as well," Alonso joked. "It was a good qualifying for us and P7 is a gift, so we'll see what we can do tomorrow."

He added: "As I said yesterday, sometimes the weekends start the wrong way but then they fix themselves, and vice versa. The important thing is tomorrow, to try to get a few points.

"But today was a beautiful day, a beautiful qualifying in which we were finding tenth after tenth. Then surprisingly we made it into Q3, and we had another very good lap."

Alonso conceded qualifying seventh was a bit of a surprise, but said he expected McLaren to be stronger despite a torrid start to the weekend.

"Yesterday was not a normal session," he added. "We had the problem in the first session and then in the second the car was half ready. But I said we would be a bit more competitive today.

"It was better than expected but the support from the people gives you a few extra tenths."

The two-time champion is now hoping for a trouble-free race after three consecutive retirements.

He said: "In the end you never know when you are going to have a problem. We've had too many this year and some have come as a surprise, so let's hope tomorrow is not that day and that we can grab a few points."