Raikkonen on pole, Alonso stuns with 2nd

F1 Grand Prix, GP Spain, Circuit de Catalunya

Fernando Alonso has stunned the world once again by putting his Renault on the front row for tomorrow's Spanish GP, home of his extatic supportors. Kimi Raikkonen just tipped him in the final stages and is on pole. Felipe Massa heads the second row and is joined by Kubica.

Under sunny skies and with an ambient temperature of 24°C, Adrian Sutil kicked off Q1. He was quickly followed by the troubled Super Aguri's and his teammate Fisichella. Through the middle of the session, the McLarens easily take charge of the times while not pushing too hard.

The latter became obvious in the final stages. Kimi Raikkonen blew away the times, just ahead of the usual final attempts of drivers to make sure that they get through to Q2. Rosberg, Trulli and Alonso all topple the McLaren times on the softer tyre compound.

The unfortunate six that fall out in Q3 are surprisingly David Coulthard, joined by Vettel, Fisichella, Sutil, Davidson and Sato. Remarkable, at Super Aguri, Anthony Davidson was so happy of being ahead of his teammate that he hugged several of his team members.

Q2 is kicked off by Alonso and his teammate Piquet after having an empty track for the first 5 minutes of the session. As a result, the drivers that wish to make 2 attempts are giving a hard time to their teams.

2 minutes before the session ending, there are 8 drivers leaving the stands at the same time. Each of them will have to make sure they will find an empty space on the track. Massa and Heidfeld for example are at tis time still eliminated and need to perform without second chances.

These are the laps that effectively show the true pace of the cars as all drivers are on as few fuel as possible and must give them all to get through. The result is that Massa is ahead of Kubica and Raikkonen, while Alonso proves that Renault is regaining speed. Not only is he fourth fastest, but Piquet also made sure that for the first time this year, 2 Renaults are participating in Q2.

Out in Q2 are Barrichello, Nakajima, Button, Glock, Rosberg and Bourdais. For the latter it was already a succes to be in Q2 while his teammate was knocked out earlier on. Therefore, Q3 will be run by 2 Ferraris, 2 McLarens, the BMW Saubers, both Renaults, Jarno Trulli and Mark Webber.

The first attempts in Q3 are a bit unclear in terms of relative performance. Massa was fastest on the option tyre while Hamilton followed as the fastest driver on the prime compound.

The second attempts were far more sensational for Renault as Alonso topped everyone apart from the reigning champion, Kimi Raikkonen.