* Engine Change - drops 10 places on the grid

Spain was looking for Fernando Alonso to repeat last years qualifying by taking pole position, which at the start of Q1 and even into Q2 looked as if it could go to his team mate Lewis Hamilton.  The local hero even went out late in Q3 but when it mattered he pulled that lap out of the bag and despite strong runs by Hamilton., Räikkönen and Massa it looked as if pole would be his, but then at the last minute the Brazilian produced
a faultless last lap, shattering the hopes of the spectators, beating Alonsos´ benchmark time by an infinitesimal three hundredths of a second and claiming his remarkable third straight pole out of four starts this season.  The Brazilian has really matured.  Lewis' comments afterwards suggest that Alonso was carrying less fuel to take pole which worked for him and Renault last year.  It is still felt that with the amount of straight before the first corner that he could be the first man into it which will delight the sell out at Montmelo with a record crowd of 160,000.  This weekend Kubica was ahead  of Heidfeld being split by the "Q Specialist" Jarno Trulli.  Kovalainen was faster than Fisichella this weekend with DC splitting the two Renault and probably is driving at his best so far this season.  Jenson Button despite only being 14th and two places behind Rubens Barichello is quite confident for the race tomorrow.  Mark Webber despite Red Bulls better showing this weekend had a suspected hydraulic problem, and Scott Speed (also with a good showing to date this  weekend) was sidelined by transmission gremlins and Alexander Wurz
reckoned that he was baulked by Jarno Trulli.  It is thought that the drivers are not too keen at the changes that have been made in the third section of the circuit with the introduction of a chicane interrupting the flow that the circuit had before.  (The Valencia street circuit proposal at Valencia for 2008 has been greeted coldly by a Spanish Government PSOE Minister on yesterdays TV1 News)

Fernando Alonso played his cards entering the first corner and lost the game for as he said afterwards with a light fuel load and 4th place at this stage a win was not on the cards.  Alonso tried to go around the outside of Massa, nearly making it, but the Brazilian was having nothing of it and was not going to be run onto the inside by the Spaniard and the two cars touched lightly, Fernando sliding momentarily off the road and letting Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen through.  When rejoining he nearly caused a moment between the two BMW Saubers.  After this Felipe Massa was never challenged, his team mate Raikkonen retiring on lap 9 with an electrical problem, and went on to win his second consecutive win.  Lewis Hamilton could not close the gap, but took his fourth consecutive podium finish in four rookie races and now leads the Championship, the youngest driver to do so since Bruce McLaren.  Trulli had stalled on the grid (fuel pressure problems) and had to start from the pit lane but had to retire on lap 8 with the same problem, lack of fuel pressure.  Kubica started to show last seasons form with a fourth place but Nick Heidfeld in his second pit stop started to move away before the right front wheel gun was disengaged.  The mechanics should have wheeled him back and his almost certain fifth place went out of the window on lap 46, but the cause of retirement was his gearbox.  David Coulthard improved performance continued during the race, and despite a problem with the gears during the last few laps he brought the Red Bull in fifth just ahead of Heikki Kovalainen and really should be the "driver of the day."  Nico Rosberg gave Williams Toyota points for his 7th place and the popular Takuma Sato also gave Super Aguri Honda their first point ever.