Montmelo (Barcelona,) 8 May

Fernando Alonso produced a perfect example of his skill behind the wheel to put his F10 on the second row of the grid, by setting the fourth fastest time in the final qualifying top ten shoot-out. The Spaniard had struggled with grip levels all weekend, but somehow pulled out a brilliant final lap, while his team-mate Felipe Massa, suffering the same problems, did his very best which in the end was good enough for ninth place on the fifth row.

All the top teams introduced technical updates at this race – always an F1 tradition for the first European round and it seems to have changed little in terms of the hierarchy, with most of the teams very closely matched. However, the Red Bulls seem to be unbeatable, at least so far this weekend and so it proved in qualifying, with Mark Webber the only driver to break the 1m 20s barrier in Q3, while Sebastian Vettel in second place produced a lap that is still around seven tenths faster than third placed Lewis Hamilton in the McLaren. The third row of the grid sees the other McLaren of Jenson Button in fifth spot with the Mercedes of Michael Schumacher alongside him, while row four features Robert Kubica seventh for Renault and Nico Rosberg eighth in the Mercedes. Felipe will have Kamui Kobayashi alongside him on row 5 at the start tomorrow in the Sauber.



In the majority of races held at the Catalunya circuit, including all of the last nine, have ended with victory going to the pole sitter. But that was in the days of refuelling and a different strategic approach. Add in the factor that tyre behaviour might be an unknown quantity over the longer distance runs and it could be that tomorrow’s Spanish GP might not be as predictable as its predecessors. Another variable could be the weather, as there is talk of rain making a rare appearance at the Catalunya track.