Italian Jarno Trulli admitted he "got very lucky" after a qualifying gamble paid off with pole position for the Belgian Grand Prix today.
Running mid-way through the qualifying session and with a brief respite from persistent rain, Trulli opted to take to the track on wet weather tyres, rather than the extreme weather tyres used by his rivals.
The gamble paid off as rain returned during the final six drivers' runs and he took a narrow pole from world champion Michael Schumacher by 0.072 seconds.
"I must admit today I was very brave, I took a gamble and I was very lucky because the rain started to come after my lap so for the last few drivers I think they had very difficult conditions," Trulli told reporters.
"The tyres worked pretty well for me, just about right, and I took this gamble. It was decision together with my engineers. We did well."
Trulli's maiden Grand Prix victory in Monaco in May came after he claimed his first-ever pole position.
His team mate Fernando Alonso will start from third on the grid behind Ferrari's six-times world champion Schumacher after the same gamble paid dividends for him.
Renault's technical chief Pat Symonds, the man who devices race strategy, admitted fortune had favoured the French team, who lie second in the constructors' championship behind Ferrari.
"I have always said that I don't believe in luck, but we were certainly lucky today," Symonds said.
Renault have a firm chance to extend their eight-point lead over third-placed BAR, who could only qualify 12th and 15th through Jenson Button and Takuma Sato.
The Renault cars have started quickly all season and Schumacher, who needs to score two points more than Ferrari team-mate Rubens Barrichello to wrap up a seventh world title, is wary of Alonso charging through from third.
Schumacher, winner of 13 of the 14 grands prix this season, expects a hard fight for victory at his favourite circuit.
"We obviously have a big challenge in front of us tomorrow because we know both the Renault guys are good starters so we hope we can compete and then we will find out how the race goes," Schumacher said.
"I think we know they are good in starts, but equally we have had very good starts too. We will find out how much our starts work tomorrow."