2011 Spanish Grand Prix The Spanish Grand Prix

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A huge crowd rises to respect the Catalan regional and Spanish national anthems as they play out over the public address system.

The pitlane is now closed. Therefore, any car yet to leave the pits will be held until the rest of the field has taken the start.

A critical factor at the start will be whether Red Bull has successfully repaired Vettel's KERS after problems in qualifying yesterday.

Heidfeld completes another tour and takes up his position at the back of the grid.

Tyres

Pirelli's revised hard tyre is set to be the key factor in today's strategy, with its pace deficit of over two seconds per lap to the softer option - but increased durability - throwing the teams' plans wide open.

Up front, the leading contenders will be starting on the soft tyres used in qualifying and a critical decision will be when they choose to get a stint, as short as possible, on the slower - hard - rubber out of the way. The Red Bull and McLaren drivers have the benefit of fresh soft rubber saved during qualifying, while the likes of Alonso and Rosberg took life out of all their option tyres during the grid decider.

This could be the day that a long first stint on hard rubber pays off - as Webber proved in China - running deep into the race and in the mix with the front runners before switching to the faster softs, just as those ahead face a spell on the harder tyres.

Schumacher is best-placed to try this strategy with an open choice of rubber from 10th, while Heidfeld from the back in a quick Renault will be a man to watch as he cuts through the field to recover from his fiery exit in practice yesterday.

Heidfeld returns to the pitlane after another lap to check over his repaired Renault.

Massa has arrived on the grid and is pushed through the throng towards the fourth row.

Here is the grid line-up for today's race: Pos Driver Team 1. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 2. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 3. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 4. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 5. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 6. Vitaly Petrov Renault 7. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 8. Felipe Massa Ferrari 9. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 10. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 11. Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 12. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 13. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 14. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 15. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 16. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 17. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 18. Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 19. Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 20. Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 21. Tonio Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 22. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 23. Jerome D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 24. Nick Heidfeld Renault

Hard tyres are the choice for these reconnaissance laps, preserving vital soft tyre life for the race itself.

Felipe Massa makes his way round Campsa and the crowded spectator banks, as he heads towards the grid on his checking lap.

Hamilton is on track for his tour around to take up third place on the grid.

For the fourth day in a row, weather conditions are fine and dry with plenty of sunshine and warm temperatures.

Some patches of light cloud may appear later this afternoon, but nothing more than that, and it will remain warm with maximum air temperature reaching 25 degrees, translating to around 45 Celsius on the track surface if the unbroken sunshine continues.

A slight breeze from the south will affect the handling of the cars, making the drivers work hard this afternoon.

Vettel arrives on the grid and is pushed towards his front row starting slot.

Michael Schumacher is on track and making his way towards the grid.

Nick Heidfeld pits and is wheeled into the garage, so that the Renault mechanics can check over the repaired R31.

Both Ferrari drivers come back through the pitlane, and take the opportunity to practice a start from the end of the lane.

Here's a reminder of the standings after four races: World Championship standings, round 4: Drivers: Constructors: 1. Vettel 93 1. Red Bull-Renault 148 2. Hamilton 59 2. McLaren-Mercedes 105 3. Webber 55 3. Ferrari 65 4. Button 46 4. Renault 42 5. Alonso 41 5. Mercedes 26 6. Massa 24 6. Sauber-Ferrari 8

Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel are both on their way to the grid.

The pitlane is now open, allowing drivers to make their reconnaissance laps to the grid.

Webber

Hello everyone and welcome to AUTOSPORT Live for coverage of round five in the 2011 FIA Formula 1 world championship - the Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona.

Red Bull has dominated the weekend so far, with Mark Webber enjoying a much better weekend than of late to take a sensational pole position ahead of team-mate Sebastian Vettel.

Lewis Hamilton secured a fine third on the grid and will start on row two alongside local hero Fernando Alonso. The effort put in by both drivers to extract the maximum out of their cars was perhaps symbolised by the Spaniard as he cheered with delight over the team radio as he came back to the pits.

Other drivers also had very positive days yesterday. Williams has struggled so far in the first four events, but Pastor Maldonado secured ninth place on the grid, and Lotus was also celebrating Heikki Kovalainen's 15th place with the benefit of some big updates to the T128.

But up front, it's the blue cars that have ruled the roost so far. 66 laps of combat lie ahead for the 24 drivers and the field will have to play tyre strategy cleverly to keep the Red Bulls in sight.