The 2006 Spanish Formula 1 Grand Prix

[Ed]

Alonso pits!

[Ed]

Michael and Massa pit as well!

[Ed]

Fisichella. Button and Barrichello also pit

[Ed]

Michael goes fastest while Alonso just betters him!

[Ed]

Fisichella second with Massa third. Michael is now 4th.

Button in 5th with Barrichello in 6th

[Ed]

The top 6 pit expect Michael

[Ed]

Michael pits a lap later.

[Ed]

Alonso fastest ahead of Fisichella with Michael in 3rd!

Massa in 4th ahead of Barrichello. Ralf Schumacher, Trulli, Button, Raikkonen and Heidfeld make the top 10.

Full results

[Snowy]

Alonso fastest ahead of Fisichella with Michael in 3rd!

Massa in 4th ahead of Barrichello. Ralf Schumacher, Trulli, Button, Raikkonen and Heidfeld make the top 10.

Full results shortly

Yipes! No Montoya, Jenson behind two Toyota's what ever next?

Gracias. Your on a roll Ed! At least you stayed on the grey stuff!

[Julian Mayo]

Alonso fastest ahead of Fisichella with Michael in 3rd!

Massa in 4th ahead of Barrichello. Ralf Schumacher, Trulli, Button, Raikkonen and Heidfeld make the top 10.

Full results shortly

Yipes! No Montoya, Jenson behind two Toyota's what ever next?

Gracias. Your on a roll Ed! At least you stayed on the grey stuff!

Just for once Honda might be looking at the finish line

[Ed]

Selected Driver and Team Quotes from Qualifying:

Fernando Alonso - Pole

I don't think even 66 laps tomorrow will be enough for me to enjoy this race, because it is pure pleasure to be driving here in Barcelona this weekend in front of my people. It is fantastic to be on pole because the times have been very close all the way through practice, probably because we test a lot at this circuit, and we expected the qualifying session to be tough. In fact, we were more nervous about Q2 than Q3 before the session started. But like in the N?rburgring, we were not so strong in the second part, and then found something extra in the third session, so I am really happy to take my second consecutive pole. Looking ahead for tomorrow, after the Renaults it is clear that Ferrari and especially Michael are very strong. So far, my worst result in five races has been second position, and if we can keep this consistency then it will be good for the championship. But we will go into the race thinking the victory is possible.

Giancarlo Fisichella - 2nd

It is nice to be P2 after a couple of difficult qualifying sessions for me at the last races. The Renault performance has been very good here all winter in testing, and we expected to be competitive at this circuit. To take the front row is a great result, and we are optimistic that we have a good package not just in qualifying, but for the race. I said at the last races that I could have fought for the podium if my qualifying position had been stronger, and I think I proved that today. There will be a tough battle for us with Ferrari tomorrow afternoon, and between the tyre manufacturers as well. I am looking forward to a great race.

Michael Schumacher - 3rd

I am quite happy with third place on the grid, as we knew
we might have to lose a bit in qualifying, because we based our decision about tyres more on how they would perform in the race. So, the second row is not a big problem as we know we can expect a strong race pace. Unlike at the Nurburgring, this time, I start from the clean side of the grid. As for race strategy, there are two possibilities and now we will have to make sure we pick the best one.

Felipe Massa - 4th

It was a good qualifying. A start from the front two rows is vital and we managed to reach this target. On my final run in Q3, I came up against a bit of traffic in the final sector, but I?m happy with the way things went. I am very confident about the race in that we know we can count on getting very consistent performance from the Bridgestone tyres.

Rubens Barrichello - 5th

Obviously I'm very happy with my qualifying position. I think I extracted the maximum out of the car today. It is quite difficult to beat the other two teams at the moment so we just have to concentrate on what we have now and make the best of every opportunity during the race. I'm quite happy with what we have achieved today and I'm looking forward to tomorrow.

Ralf Schumacher - 6th

We had a good day today but it was a tough afternoon's work out there. We didn't use any new tyres this morning and we had to go to the limit to make it through into Session 3. The car was fine during all three sessions and we had no problems. The track was slightly slippery but nothing exceptional. My final lap was a clean lap but a driver is never completely satisfied, especially when a thousandth of a second is all you need to gain a place. Still, we are confident in our strategy and hopeful for the race, where we will push for a good result.

Jarno Trulli - 7th

We're quite satisfied with today's performance. I had problems with understeer and the car behaviour changed a lot during the sessions. That meant I could not quite pull out the lap I would have liked at the end but we are still near the front. Because everyone knows this track so well, everyone runs at the absolute limit during this race weekend. We looked good in the tests here and we're near the front again today so things are looking positive. Now we will have to see how we can perform in the race. We have worked hard to eliminate the problems with tyre graining that we had yesterday. So we hope that helps us tomorrow and we can put in a good race performance.

Jenson Button - 8th

I'm extremely disappointed to qualify in 8th position. The car balance was fine until I asked for a little more front wing. Normally you would expect to get a better front end on the car but I had massive understeer, far more than we would have expected. We'll have to look at the data to see what the problem is and hopefully address it in time for tomorrow.

Teams

Renault - Pat Symonds

This was a very exciting qualifying session, and we were delighted to see both of our drivers put in perfect laps today. We have been pleased with the long-run performance of the Michelin tyres so far this weekend, and this afternoon's result shows they are working well on the first lap too. It has all the makings of a very exciting race tomorrow.

Ferrari - Jean Todt

Once again, we witnessed a very close qualifying session today.
Tomorrow, we will have an all-red second row, with the two cars of our main rival ahead of us. Both our drivers did well. Tomorrow, reliability and tyre performance and Bridgestone has made a great job of that for this race. Given that overtaking is very difficult, it?s clear that strategy will play a key role in deciding the outcome and tomorrow we will find out who got it right.

Honda - Gil de Ferran

We have mixed emotions regarding today's qualifying session. It all went smoothly for Rubens, who had a great run to put the car in 5th position on the grid. Jenson on the other hand was going similarly well, but unexpectedly he picked up a lot of understeer on his last run on new tyres and this is something we need to investigate. As always there are a lot of unknowns in terms of strategy so we will see what tomorrow brings.

Toyota - Pascal Vasselon

Qualifying went better than we expected. This morning we decided to stay on used tyres so it was difficult to say exactly how we would fare on new rubber this afternoon. We were still confident we'd make the top ten and we managed that. The drivers started just 10-12 seconds before the end but you have to push to the limit. So it has to be tight and everything went according to plan. The Bridgestone tyres were strong and the two drivers did a very good job. Some other teams opted for two runs at the end of Session 3 and it's obviously something we considered, but our drivers feel very confident with just one outing. Now we can look forward to the race tomorrow. We have a sound strategy so let's see what happens.

McLaren - Ron Dennis

This was a difficult qualifying. Juan Pablo's first session was interrupted by a red flag situation which cost him a set of tyres. In the second qualifying a mistake was made with his refuelling which allowed his tyres to cool off. We were marginal on time, but with the benefit of hindsight we should have changed the tyres. Kimi's final qualifying run saw him being blocked by Trulli, but his second was OK. Overall we lacked pace today, but on a positive note our race set-up seemed to be working well in this morning's practice which bode well for tomorrow.

BMW Sauber - Mario Theissen

Once again it was very tight. After the first part of qualifying there was less than a second between first and 14th places. In the second part the first 11 drivers were within one second of each other. For us we had different strategies. It was clear Jacques would not be able to start in the top ten because of the engine change. For Nick we concentrated on getting him into the top ten, which is exactly what he achieved. On his first lap he got stuck in traffic which cost him quite a lot of time. What his starting position will be worth compared to the opposition we will see tomorrow at the first pit stop. Technically the cars ran problem free. As Jacques is starting from the last row anyway, we will fit another fresh engine to give him the best possible chances for here and Monaco.

Williams - Sam Michael

It?s disappointing to have neither car in the final ten ? a couple of tenths takes you a long way. However, we are confident of having a good race pace and using a good strategy tomorrow.

Red Bull - Christian Horner

It was unfortunate that David suffered a problem. His car's water system lost pressure. He was quick this morning and was feeling confident ahead of the session. For Christian, we always knew it would be tight to get into the top ten, but we've been looking more competitive this weekend. Christian made it through to part two of the session and the first time he set was very respectable. Unfortunately he was blocked on his final run, which was a shame as it cost him the opportunity to improve. The grid is so tight now that every tenth of a second counts. But, we'll race hard tomorrow and go from there.

Toro Rosso - N/A

MF1 Racing - to be added

Super Aguri - Aguri Suzuki

Taku did a good job with the hard tyre option and I am pleased that he made the 1:18?s. Although Franck went off the track at the end of his quick lap he also did a good job. The times are not so fast but they are showing the best possible performance of the car at this point. We have not been able to finish a race since we started the Europe leg of the season, so I hope that we will be able to have a two-car finish tomorrow.

[<T-K>]

Red Bull - Christian Horner

It was unfortunate that David suffered a problem. His car's water system lost pressure.

And that is what caused him to veer wildy off the track at turn three???

[Julian Mayo]

Red Bull - Christian Horner

It was unfortunate that David suffered a problem. His car's water system lost pressure.

And that is what caused him to veer wildy off the track at turn three???

Radiators blowing coolant all over the rear wheels suddenly, tends to cause a certain loss of capability when it comes to governing the intended/hoped for direction of the vehicle

[<T-K>]

Well when you put it that way.....

[Ed]

Apologies for not being able to cover the race. We had some major technical problems

Fernando Alonso won the race ahead of Michael Schumacher and Giancarlo Fisichella. Felipe Massa, Kimi Raikkonen, Jenson Button, Rubens Barrichello and Nick Heidfeld made the top 8.

Full Results