F1 Barcelona Quali

Quali was always going to be a tight affair here and it turned out 1.7 seconds beyween pole and 20th. It was also to be a race which could tell us who has season pace and who hasn't after the first 4 fly away races.

I have to mention the total cock up once again by Ferrari leaving Raikonnen at the rear of the grid and not progressing to Q2. It appears that Kimi has taken responsibility for the grid position and one has to question his commitment to his team.

He says "I wasn't really keen on going out again, I thought we had done enough", well as far as I am concerned he should vacate his seat and give it to someone who does have the commitment.

It was always going to be a fight between Brawn, Red Bull and Toyota which has been the pattern from the start of the season. However, Massa has at last found some pace and he will be in perfect position to use his KERS for the start and if he can get into Turn 1 in front Barcelona is a circuit where he can dictate the pace.

Jenson came out on top and took pole with Sebastian Vettel hot on his heals. But what about fuel, Vettel it appears has 2 more laps of fuel than Jenson which could make all the difference throughout the race. Rubens and Felipe followed in 3rd and 4th with Mark and Timo taking row 3. Jarno and Fernando took row 4 with Nico and Kubica rounding out the top 5 rows.

Kubica has at last found some pace in difference to his team mate Heidfeld who finished down in 13th. This was at least a better showing than Bahrain where they took the lowly positions. What about Mclaren? Lewis finished 14th with Heiki not even making Q2. The Mclaren just doesn't seem to have enough downforce to make a challenge and we will have to wait to see if they can find it.

It looks as though Lewis won't be able to fight to retain his world champion status this year as races come and go without points. Let's hope KERS can help in through the race, it will be interesting.

So I am ready for the start and hope it's a great race to herald the teams back to Europe.