The Complete 2008 Spanish GP Review

If, as looks likely, 2008 is going to see a string of comfortable Ferrari one-two finishes, then the excitement may have to come from elsewhere as Kimi Raikkonen eases to a second title.

But while the Spanish Grand Prix was all but decided at the first corner as Raikkonen led away from pole and his Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa slotted into second, there were plenty of other talking points at Barcelona.

When the weekend began, all eyes were on the parlous state of Super Aguri, as it appeared increasingly unlikely that Aguri Suzuki's team would be on the grid. With that crisis temporarily resolved, attention turned to the more heartening story of Fernando Alonso and Renault's incredible turnaround in form, before Heikki Kovalainen's frightening accident became the focus on race day.

Miraculous escapes are now so common in Formula One that it has become almost clichéd to praise modern safety standards. But Kovalainen's fortune in emerging virtually unscathed simply had to be marvelled at. Whereas Robert Kubica's infamous Montreal 2007 accident went on and on, scattering parts of the car over a wide area, Kovalainen's crash was compacted into a single, extremely vicious, head-on impact that saw the McLaren virtually disappear under the barrier. His simple thumbs up gesture to the crowd came as an enormous relief, as would the early positive reports about his physical condition.

With all the attention on Kovalainen's crash, it was easy to forget that his McLaren teammate Lewis Hamilton had mounted a comeback of sorts by returning to the podium after two frustrating and chaotic races. But while the result was infinitely preferable to another Sakhir-style disaster, third behind two dominant Ferraris was not what Hamilton needed to boost his title prospects. He admitted that maximising the 2008 McLaren's potential was proving tricky.

"I think when the car is set correctly, as it was in Australia, it's beautiful to drive and I have no doubt that we can challenge for pole position," he said.

"But it only takes one millimetre of ride height or something, it's very, very sensitive, to make it not right and then you're half a tenth or a tenth off, and that's the difference between pole position and fourth place."

And in Spain that missing tenth of a second proved particularly costly, as Alonso's return to prominence made life even more complicated for the lead pack. After the misery of Bahrain and another round of speculation about his future plans, the former champion was back to his absolute best on home ground and revelled in the clearly improved Renault.

While his front row qualifying run was certainly aided by a relatively light fuel load, it fell into the category of an aggressive strategy rather than irresponsible showboating, and would have taken him to a strong fifth place but for the mid-race engine failure.

"At least we were fighting with the top cars when in the first races we were so far we couldn't even see them," said Alonso. "You could see them and even touch them. This is the way to go and I'm left with a good feeling."

Probably not as good a feeling as Ferrari enjoyed on Sunday night, though. The team's insistence that their chaotic Australian weekend was just a blip has been proved thoroughly right. Had Massa not spun away second place in Malaysia, they would have taken a comfortable one-two in every race since.

The break and testing period since Bahrain was one of the best opportunities to develop the cars and regain ground that McLaren will have all season, yet the gap to Ferrari in Spain was barely any smaller - and Raikkonen and Massa strongly hinted that Ferrari went no faster than was necessary during the race.

Right now, it looks like Ferrari are in a class of their own, with McLaren and BMW evenly matched in their wake - and after Spain the question is not whether these two can close on the leaders, but whether Alonso and Renault can step up and join their battle week in, week out?

Practice

Practice one - Friday am

Ferrari were nonchalantly dominant in opening practice - not even venturing out for so much as an installation lap until the session was half over, and then instantly jumping to the top of the timing screens with Kimi Raikkonen's first flying lap.

Felipe Massa eventually established himself in second, but only after a spin at Turn 10 and a minor excursion at Campsa. Having closed to within 0.05 seconds of Raikkonen, he then pirouetted again on the exit of Turn 8.

Lewis Hamilton was half a second down on the Ferraris in third, and a similar amount clear of BMW's Robert Kubica and his McLaren teammate Heikki Kovalainen.

Jarno Trulli was the only man other than Massa to spin in the morning - also at Turn 10 - as Toyota were caught particularly off-guard by the change in track conditions since the previous week's test. There was widespread head-scratching throughout the paddock as teams struggled to replicate their testing times, to the particular frustration of Honda, who had been highly optimistic about their new aerodynamic package after the test.

Practice two - Friday pm

Unusually Friday afternoon practice in Spain was much slower than the morning session, with Raikkonen fastest again but a full 1.3 seconds down on his earlier lap.

He only grabbed first position in the final minutes, usurping sensational Renault duo Nelson Piquet and Fernando Alonso. The crowd's hero played down Renault's apparent recovery, but the signs were certainly promising.

Kazuki Nakajima was an equally surprising fourth for Williams, ahead of Massa.

McLaren had a terrible afternoon and admitted to being slightly off the pace. Hamilton was only 11th, while Kovalainen missed the first half of the session while a gearbox issue was rectified, then stopped on track with throttle problems not long after joining the circuit.

The stars of the afternoon were the Force India pair, who held a one-two for 30 minutes and only fell back to ninth and 10th as others improved.

Practice three - Saturday am

Nick Heidfeld emerged fastest by the end of the traditional flurry of last-minute, soft tyre laps that tend to conclude Saturday practice, the BMW driver pipping Red Bull's David Coulthard and the again-impressive Alonso with his final lap.

As has been their habit this season, Ferrari and McLaren did not run low fuel in this session, so were unrepresentatively slow - Massa the best of the usual top four in ninth place.

The session was also relatively uneventful, with Turn 10 spins for Rubens Barrichello and Adrian Sutil the only incidents apart from Mark Webber stopping in the pit exit with a throttle problem that would prevent him from completing a flying lap.

Qualifying

Part one

For the second race in a row, David Coulthard was the sole big name casualty of Q1 - the Red Bull driver left "shocked" after ending up in the same 17th spot he had occupied in Bahrain. Traffic on his out-lap meant Coulthard could not warm his tyres sufficiently and missed a Q2 place by 0.053 seconds.

Coulthard's disappointment was not the only 'deja vu' aspect of Q1, as the rest of the back of the grid line-up virtually mirrored the Bahrain order. Lacking confidence in his car in sector one, Sebastian Vettel again found himself out-paced by Toro Rosso teammate Sebastien Bourdais, with the Frenchman proceeding to Q2 while Vettel was eliminated. He did improve one place on Bahrain, however, taking 18th.

The Force Indias shared row ten again, which was a huge letdown for the team after their top ten practice performance raised genuine hopes of reaching Q2 and securing upper midfield grid places. Giancarlo Fisichella beat Adrian Sutil by 0.7 seconds after the German suffered brake problems.

Super Aguri claimed their usual back row slots, although their mere presence on the grid was a minor miracle following the collapse of their buyout deal and the consequent questions over their future viability. The emotionally exhausted Anthony Davidson out-qualified Takuma Sato, and came within a tenth of a second of beating Sutil too.

"I think I can safely say that this has been the hardest weekend of my life, in racing," said Davidson. "To get that lap out of the car, and to get so close to Sutil, was amazing, really."

Part two

After being hugely encouraged by Honda's new aerodynamic parts in the pre-race test, Rubens Barrichello declared that his team should aim to book a permanent place in Q3 for the rest of the season.

Yet he wasn't too disappointed to miss out on the top ten by just 0.065 seconds, ending up 11th on the grid.

"I don't want to sound like I lack modesty, but I don't think there was any more (time) to get," he said. "We lost too much in sector one because of a lack of speed on the straight, but I think it was a good lap - a perfect lap, actually. It was just so damn close."

His teammate Jenson Button was two places further back in 13th, and rued the fact that his test day with the revised car had been a washout, meaning that he was still making major experimental set-up changes during qualifying.

They were split by Kazuki Nakajima, who out-qualified his Williams teammate Nico Rosberg for the first time, the German finishing the session in 15th. Neither driver had a significant problem, they just lacked the speed to get to the front of the incredibly tight midfield group, as just 0.4 seconds covered third to 15th places in Q2.

Timo Glock and Sebastien Bourdais were the other Q2 departures - the German slightly perplexed by his slow lap time as he only managed 14th, and the Toro Rosso driver "frustrated" by an error on his best lap after a set-up change failed to cure understeer.

Part three

One of the main reasons why Williams, Glock and Honda failed to achieve their Q3 goals was that the resurgent Renault team had charged through to the top ten with both cars for the first time this season.

Not content with that, Fernando Alonso then mounted a shock pole challenge - to the vocal delight of his home fans.

After the first Q3 runs it was Felipe Massa who held the provisional pole with a 1:22.058 lap, 0.3 seconds faster than Lewis Hamilton.

But Alonso was right in contention in third place, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, whose first flying lap was half a second shy of his teammate's effort - not what had been expected after he lapped 0.6 seconds quicker than anyone else in Q1.

Hamilton was the first to cross the line with his final lap, and although he improved to a 1:22.096, it wasn't sufficient to beat Massa.

BMW's Robert Kubica then squeezed in between the Ferrari and the McLaren, producing a time just 0.007 seconds slower than Massa, who failed to improve. "I couldn't put a lap together," the Brazilian admitted.

That would prove costly for Massa, as Alonso found half a second and snatched provisional pole away with a 1:21.904.

However the grandstands had only just erupted with patriotic joy when Raikkonen came through to register an even greater improvement, as the world champion snuck ahead of Alonso by 0.091 seconds.

But while Raikkonen was reasonably pleased to score his first pole since last September, Alonso was utterly delighted with his front row start - even though it had briefly looked set to be a stunning pole.

"I was very excited because I knew the time was good, and the engineers informed me that only Kimi was running behind," said Alonso. "So when I crossed the line I knew it was a first row place in the worst case. That's something that for sure we didn't expect at all, not at this race and maybe not even in the whole season, so I cannot be happier than I am now."

There was little doubt that the Renault was on a relatively light fuel load, but even taking that into consideration, the team's improvement since Bahrain was clear.

Behind second row pair Massa and Kubica, Hamilton was "shocked and stunned" to find himself in fifth, alongside teammate Heikki Kovalainen.

Red Bull had fulsome praise for Mark Webber after he rebounded from missing all of final practice to take a season-best seventh on the grid, ahead of a slightly disappointed Jarno Trulli (Toyota) and a thoroughly frustrated Nick Heidfeld, who was at a loss to explain the 0.5 second gap to BMW teammate Kubica.

Nelson Piquet completed the top ten in the second Renault, with the team openly admitting he was running heavier than Alonso, who out-paced the Brazilian by 0.7 seconds.

"I don't think it would be any secret to say Fernando and Nelson are not on the same strategy," said Pat Symonds. "Nelson still needs to learn, he still needs to get the races under his belt and it is probably not the best thing to be very aggressive with it."

They had no such worries with Alonso - and, thoroughly tantalised by their hero's qualifying performance, the Barcelona crowd began to wonder if he could channel that aggression into an even better result on race day...

Qualifying results

Pos  Driver       Team                 Q1        Q2        Q3       Laps
 1.  Raikkonen    Ferrari              1:20.701  1:20.784  1:21.813  17
 2.  Alonso       Renault              1:21.347  1:20.804  1:21.904  18
 3.  Massa        Ferrari              1:21.528  1:20.584  1:22.058  16
 4.  Kubica       BMW Sauber           1:21.423  1:20.597  1:22.065  13
 5.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes     1:21.366  1:20.825  1:22.096  14
 6.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes     1:21.430  1:20.817  1:22.231  15
 7.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault     1:21.494  1:20.984  1:22.429  19
 8.  Trulli       Toyota               1:21.158  1:20.907  1:22.529  19
 9.  Heidfeld     BMW Sauber           1:21.466  1:20.815  1:22.542  20
10.  Piquet       Renault              1:21.409  1:20.894  1:22.699  18
11.  Barrichello  Honda                1:21.548  1:21.049            12
12.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota      1:21.690  1:21.117            15
13.  Button       Honda                1:21.757  1:21.211            12
14.  Glock        Toyota               1:21.427  1:21.230            16
15.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota      1:21.472  1:21.349            15
16.  Bourdais     Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1:21.540  1:21.724            15
17.  Coulthard    Red Bull-Renault     1:21.810                       6
18.  Vettel       Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1:22.108                      10
19.  Fisichella   Force India-Ferrari  1:22.516                      11
20.  Sutil        Force India-Ferrari  1:23.224                       8
21.  Davidson     Super Aguri-Honda    1:23.318                       9
22.  Sato         Super Aguri-Honda    1:23.496                       9

The Race

Fernando Alonso insisted on Saturday evening that sixth place was the realistic maximum he could hope for in the race, despite his amazing qualifying resurgence. But that didn't mean he was going to meekly drop back through the field on Sunday - and he demonstrated just how fired-up he was by half-spinning onto the grass and nearly clouting the pit entry barrier as he vigorously warmed his tyres on the parade lap.

Having escaped that scare unscathed, Alonso couldn't quite manage to take the fight to polesitter Kimi Raikkonen into the first corner, and instead found himself being out-dragged by the Finn's Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa and falling to third by Turn 1.

Just behind, Lewis Hamilton made a great getaway and squeezed past Robert Kubica to take fourth, with their respective teammates Heikki Kovalainen and Nick Heidfeld slotting into sixth and seventh ahead of Mark Webber, Jarno Trulli and Nelson Piquet.

Outside the top ten, Nico Rosberg made up for his poor qualifying position within seconds by moving up from 15th to 11th, with Force India's Giancarlo Fisichella made an equally sharp start and leapt from 19th to 15th.

His teammate Adrian Sutil had similar ambitions and managed to get ahead of the slow-starting Timo Glock's Toyota through Turn 3. The young German's next move was far less successful though, as he bounced off the Turn 4 kerb and into the side of David Coulthard's Red Bull, sending his Force India spinning into the path of Sebastian Vettel's Toro Rosso.

Both Sutil and Vettel were out - the third time in four races that the latter had failed to get past the first lap - while Takuma Sato lost a chunk of his Super Aguri's nose on the back of the Toro Rosso. Coulthard escaped without significant damage, but did describe that area of the pack on the first lap as "a horrible thing."

The safety car was briefly required while the stranded machines were craned away, with the race commencing in earnest on lap four. The Ferraris immediately began edging clear of Alonso at the restart, and leaving the local hero to resist the chasing Hamilton and Kubica.

Renault's hope that Nelson Piquet might back their lead driver up with a quietly consistent points finish were dashed on the second lap of green flag racing, when the Brazilian out-braked himself and ploughed through the Turn 5 gravel. He tumbled to 18th, and tangled with Sebastien Bourdais at Turn 10 just two laps later.

"All I know is that I checked my mirrors and Nelson did not seem to be in a position to attack, even though he was close to me, but not close enough," said Bourdais. "I braked for Turn 10 quite late, started to turn into the corner and all of a sudden, he was there alongside me as I turned."

For his part, Piquet admitted that he felt he "had to take a few risks" to recover after his first error. Both cars were left with broken suspension, and Piquet also proved inadvertently responsible for Anthony Davidson's retirement - some of the gravel he had earlier deposited on the track puncturing the Super Aguri's radiator.

Alonso put his qualifying speed into context by pitting on lap 16, by which time he had dropped eight seconds to the Ferraris. With Massa coming in only three laps later, it was clear that Renault had made great strides since Sakhir - but not sufficient progress to really worry the top three at this stage. Indeed Hamilton and Kubica had little difficulty emerging in front of the Renault when they made their pit stops together on lap 21, one lap after Raikkonen had pitted from a comfortable lead and rejoined four seconds clear of Massa.

Those stops allowed Kovalainen to temporarily move into the lead, but disaster struck before he reached his pitstop, as wheel failure caused his left-front tyre to dramatically deflate as he committed to the 140mph Campsa bend.

The McLaren speared across the gravel trap and buried itself in the tyre wall at virtually unabated speed, doing substantial damage to its front end. The medical team carefully extracted Kovalainen, who was airlifted to hospital for precautionary checks. Remarkably it appeared that he had escaped from the ferocious impact with only a slight concussion.

"There is no physical damage to him at all and no trauma damage to his brain, he's completely clear," Ron Dennis reported later. "There's no damage or bruising or bleeding. So we're quite optimistic about the next race."

Six laps were run behind the safety car while Kovalainen was attended to. While those who had already pitted were relieved, those running longer first stints were disadvantaged by the caution - particularly Heidfeld, who moved into the lead as the McLaren crashed. BMW instantly suspected the safety car would be called and asked Heidfeld to pit immediately... but he received the message just after passing the pit entry.

Left with the choice of stopping in a closed pit or running out of fuel, Heidfeld pitted on lap 22 and resigned himself to the subsequent penalty that would drop him to last.

At the restart, the Ferraris again led from Hamilton, Kubica, the soon-to-be-penalised Heidfeld and Alonso. Webber and Trulli continued to head the chasing pack in seventh and eighth, ahead of the two Williams, while an early pitstop before the caution had allowed Takuma Sato to vault the entire midfield and emerge in 11th.

Force India deliberately short-fuelled Fisichella when he pitted under yellow to try and get the same result, bringing the Italian up to 12th, ahead of Jenson Button, Coulthard and Glock.

Rubens Barrichello should have been at the head of this group, but a tangle with Fisichella in the crowded pitlane ripped the front wing from his Honda and caused additional damage that would ultimately force him to retire.

Although the top four swiftly edged away from Alonso after the restart, the Spaniard still looked set for fifth until his engine failed on the backstraight on lap 34. The former champion exited the car to loud applause from the adoring crowd, who knew that his performance this weekend had been every bit as impressive as his 2006 home win.

Alonso's retirement was the first of a series of incidents that threw the final points-paying places wide open in the final stages of the race. Next to go was Rosberg, who had moved up to seventh and was chasing Webber and Trulli when an apparent engine failure ended his afternoon.

Earlier-than-average final pitstops then ended Sato and Fisichella's chances of snatching a giant-killing point or two for their underdog teams, with Sato's Super Aguri falling out of touch with the rest of the pack having gamely held off Fisichella, Button, Coulthard and Glock for many laps.

The latter pair had a shot at points until they collided following their final stops - the Toyota sliding into the back of the Red Bull at Turn 5, breaking Glock's front wing and shredding Coulthard's left rear tyre.

"It is terrible, but who is interested in hearing about me complaining about people running into me?" said the fed-up Scot.

"He left me a bit of space and then closed it and I crashed into him," reckoned Glock.

Just to add to Toyota's disappointment, a 'communication problem' then resulted in Trulli initially being called into the pits rather than Glock. The totally unnecessary stop dropped the Italian from sixth to eighth place. "These things happen, but that cost us two precious points today," said Trulli.

The combination of these incidents and some extremely rapid in-laps - including the fifth-fastest of the race - at the end of his long final stint elevated Button to sixth place, and he duly pulled away from Nakajima to claim Honda's first points of the year.

Behind the equally satisfied Nakajima and the disgruntled Trulli, Heidfeld recovered to ninth with a late outside line pass on Fisichella. The delayed Glock and Coulthard came home 11th and 12th, followed by Sato.

Webber stayed safely ahead of all these incidents, finishing 18 seconds clear of Button in a fine fifth place.

"We didn't have a great start to today's race, but we had good pace and we were there at the end," he said. "I'm happy with my driving and the team did an excellent job."

The Red Bull was just over half a minute behind the lead quartet, who stayed close together throughout the second half of the race and all finished within five seconds of each other, without a change of position every looking likely.

While third and fourth placed Hamilton and Kubica took consolation from keeping the Ferraris in sight, Raikkonen and Massa hinted that their second consecutive one-two finish could have been more dominant had they wished.

"If we had wanted we could have gone a bit faster but there is no point to push it when you don't need to," shrugged Raikkonen after a result that bolstered his championship lead and placed Ferrari back atop the constructors' table.

"I think it was closer than we expected but saying that there were many safety cars, so without them maybe it would have been looking a little bit different. It was a good day - everything was brilliant."

Brilliant and seemingly effortless. With a nine-point lead in his pocket, a benchmark car underneath him, and momentum on his side, Raikkonen is starting to look ominously unstoppable.

Race results

66 laps; 307.104km;
Weather: Sunny.

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time
 1.  Raikkonen     Ferrari               (B)  1h38:19.051
 2.  Massa         Ferrari               (B)  +     3.228
 3.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  +     4.187
 4.  Kubica        BMW Sauber            (B)  +     5.694
 5.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault      (B)  +    35.938
 6.  Button        Honda                 (B)  +    53.010
 7.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota       (B)  +    58.244
 8.  Trulli        Toyota                (B)  +    59.435
 9.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber            (B)  +  1:03.073
10.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari   (B)  +     1 lap
11.  Glock         Toyota                (B)  +     1 lap
12.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault      (B)  +     1 lap
13.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda     (B)  +     1 lap

Fastest lap: Raikkonen, 1:21.670

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                      On lap
Rosberg       Williams-Toyota       (B)    42
Alonso        Renault               (B)    35
Barrichello   Honda                 (B)    35
Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes      (B)    22
Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda     (B)    9
Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)    8
Piquet        Renault               (B)    7
Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)    1
Sutil         Force India-Ferrari   (B)    1


World Championship standings, round 4:

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Raikkonen     29        1.  Ferrari                47
 2.  Hamilton      20        2.  BMW Sauber             35
 3.  Kubica        19        3.  McLaren-Mercedes       34
 4.  Massa         18        4.  Williams-Toyota        12
 5.  Heidfeld      16        5.  Toyota                  9
 6.  Kovalainen    14        6.  Red Bull-Renault        8
 7.  Trulli         9        7.  Renault                 6
 8.  Webber         8        8.  Honda                   3
 9.  Rosberg        7        9.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari      2
10.  Alonso         6
11.  Nakajima       5
12.  Button         3
13.  Bourdais       2

Team-by-Team

FERRARI

Ferrari start the weekend with a comfortable one-two in Friday morning practice (despite second-placed Massa spinning twice) and end it with a comfortable one-two in the race. While Raikkonen claims his first pole since Spa 2007, Massa is a frustrated third, but he resumes team formation by passing Alonso off the line. They then control the race from the front and further underline their title favourite status.

BMW SAUBER

Another good weekend for Kubica, who qualifies and finishes fourth. Being passed by Hamilton at the start costs him a third consecutive podium, but he matches the McLaren's pace all race and is pleased to finish within five seconds of the Ferraris.

Heidfeld has a much tougher time, qualifying an unhappy ninth and then dropping from a likely fifth place to last when left with no choice but to refuel in a closed pitlane during the second safety car. He fights back to salvage ninth.

Despite Alonso playing down his expectations, the post-Bahrain upgrades deliver a massive performance boost. Piquet and Alonso are second and third on Friday afternoon, and the crowd's hero then gets within 0.091 seconds of pole, lining up alongside Raikkonen's Ferrari on the front row. He loses out to Massa at the start and pits at least three laps earlier than the rest of the lead pack, but is still set for fifth before his engine fails.

Piquet has his best F1 qualifying yet in 10th, only to go off the road early on and then retire after a collision with Bourdais.

Nakajima is a surprise fourth fastest in second practice, then out-qualifies Rosberg for the first time - although they line up a disappointing 12th and 15th. Rosberg takes his teammate's set-up for the race and makes great progress, jumping to 11th at the start and rising to seventh before suffering what appears to be an engine failure. Nakajima inherits his position and collects another two points.

Webber misses all of final practice with a throttle problem, but shrugs off this disadvantage to take seventh on the grid. He then drives a strong race to fifth - unable to match the leaders and comfortably capable of edging away from the rest of the upper midfield.

Coulthard has another disappointing qualifying and another bruising race. He starts only 17th, survives an assault from Sutil on the first lap, and looks set to make it as high as eighth before a collision with Glock results in a puncture. He eventually finishes 12th.

Trulli qualifies a slightly disappointed eighth and spends most of the race chasing Webber. Sixth is his for the taking until confused communication sees him called into the pits unnecessarily, dropping him to eighth.

The team actually intended to summon Glock to pit, the German having just broken his front wing on Coulthard's Red Bull. Glock had started 14th and lost more places off the line. The Coulthard incident costs him a likely ninth position as he rejoins to take 11th.

In what may be the 2007 car's final appearance, Bourdais again out-paces Vettel to take 16th on the grid to the German's 18th place. Neither lasts long in the race - Vettel innocently collects Sutil's spinning Force India on lap one, and Bourdais sustains broken suspension in a clash with Piquet six laps later.

Barrichello and Button's 11th and 13th places on the grid are a slight disappointment after a very encouraging test with the upgraded car. But Button shows its potential with a fine drive to sixth in the race. He uses a long second stint and some very quick in-laps to emerge from the midfield pack and claim Honda's first points of 2008.

Button had trailed his teammate until the first stops, when Barrichello clashed with Fisichella and broke his front wing. He retires soon after when additional damage becomes apparent.

After a nail-biting series of negotiations grant the team a stay of execution for at least the Barcelona weekend, Davidson and Sato take their customary back row grid slots - although the former is thrilled to be within 0.1 seconds of Sutil.

Unfortunately Davidson is an early retirement with a holed radiator, but Sato rises as high as ninth thanks to some fortunate pit strategy - the Japanese driver having got his first stop out of the way before the safety car. He fends off a train of faster cars for a while, before falling back to 13th and last following his second stop.

Fisichella and Sutil take a promising ninth and 10th in Friday practice, so are deeply disappointed to tumble back to 19th and 20th on the grid.

In his eagerness to move forward, Sutil clashes with Coulthard on the first lap and spins into Vettel's path, ending both the Germans' races.

But Fisichella has a much better afternoon, gaining four places off the line then running as high as eighth after deliberately short-fuelling at his first stop to gain track position during the caution. He comes home tenth after being passed by Heidfeld in the closing stages.

Underwhelming practice times suggest McLaren are not on Ferrari's pace again in Spain, and the oil pump and throttle problems that sideline Kovalainen for much of Friday don't help.

They qualify on row three, Hamilton ahead, but are confident of faring better in the race. Sure enough, Hamilton passes Kubica at the start then jumps Alonso in the pits, while the heaver-fuelled Kovalainen emerges in the lead.

He then suffers a massive accident when a wheel failure causes his left-front tyre to deflate in the circuit's fastest corner. The McLaren ploughs into the barriers but Kovalainen escapes with mild concussion. The team decide to let Hamilton continue and he duly chases the Ferraris to the finish to claim third place.

Lap-by-Lap

Formation lap: Fernando Alonso slithers onto the grass while warming up his tyres aggressively.

Lap 1: On pole position for the first time this season world championship leader Kimi Raikkonen leads cleanly into the first corner. Local hero Alonso is beaten away by Felipe Massa, who lies second.

Lewis Hamilton takes fourth from Robert Kubica. Heikki Kovalainen lies sixth ahead of Nick Heidfeld, Mark Webber, Jarno Trulli, Nelson Piquet, Nico Rosberg, Rubens Barrichello, Jenson Button, Kazuki Nakajima, Giancarlo Fisichella, David Coulthard, Timo Glock, Sebastien Bourdais, Anthony Davidson and Takuma Sato.

Adrian Sutil collided with Sebastian Vettel on the opening lap and both retired © LAT

Adrian Sutil spins at Turn Four and collects Sebastian Vettel who is then rammed by Sato. The Safety Car is deployed to allow the cars of Vettel and Sutil to be retrieved.

Lap 4: Restart. Raikkonen opens up a 1.3 seconds lead.

Lap 5: Raikkonen extends his lead to 1.7 seconds. Piquet ploughs through the Turn Five gravel and drops to 18th.

Lap 7: Piquet collides with Bourdais while trying to pass at Turn 10. The Brazilian is out on the spot, the Frenchman retires to the pits.

Lap 8: Davidson pits and the car is pulled into its garage.

Lap 9: Raikkonen sets the race's fastest lap to date - 1:22.526 - and leads by 2.7 seconds.

Lap 10: The leader is getting quicker: 1:22.508. Alonso leads fourth-placed Hamilton by 1.2 seconds.

Lap 13: A new fastest lap for Raikkonen: 1:22.178. Massa trails by 3.2 seconds.

Lap 15: Raikkonen posts a 1:21.97 to lead by 3.3 seconds. The order behind remains unchanged.

Lap 16: Alonso pits for fuel and drops to 11th.

Lap 17: Raikkonen laps in 1:21.827. He leads by 3.6 seconds.

Lap 19: Massa pits.

Lap 20: Raikkonen, Webber, Trulli and Sato pit. Hamilton leads.

Rubens Barrichello damaged his front wing during his pitstop © LAT

Lap 21: Hamilton and Kubica pit.

Lap 22: Kovalainen crashes heavily at Turn Nine. Rosberg pits. Safety Car deployed. Race neutralised with Heidfeld leading

Lap 24: Heidfeld comes in for fuel, although the pits are not yet open.

Lap 25: Barrichello, Button, Nakajima, Fisichella, Coulthard and Glock pit. Button and Fisichella almost touch in the pits. Barrichello definitely hits something because his nose is damaged as he emerges.

Lap 26: Barrichello pits again.

Lap 27: Released from his wrecked car, Kovalainen gives the crowd a thumbs-up sign.

Lap 29: Race restarts with Raikkonen leading Massa, Hamilton, Kubica, Heidfeld, Alonso, Webber, Trulli, Rosberg, Nakajima, Sato, Fisichella, Button, Coulthard, Glock and Barrichello.

Lap 30: Heidfeld is handed a 10 seconds stop-go penalty for refuelling before the pit lane had opened.

Lap 31: Raikkonen leads by 1.8 seconds. Hamilton is third, 1.0 seconds behind Massa.

Lap 33: Heidfeld serves his penalty stop.

Lap 34: Barrichello pits to retire.

Lap 35: Alonso pulls off at Turn Four, amid a trail of engine smoke.

Nick Heidfeld serves a penalty for refueling when the pits were closed © XPB/LAT

Lap 38: Sato pits.

Lap 42: Rosberg's engine blows on the pit straight.

Lap 44: Fisichella pits.

Lap 45: Massa posts fastest lap: 1:21.801. He trails by 3.3 seconds. Heidfeld pits.

Lap 46: Raikkonen responds: 1:21.670. Massa, Webber and Trulli pit.

Lap 47: Raikkonen, Hamilton and Kubica pit. Raikkonen retains the lead, from Massa and Hamilton.

Lap 49: Raikkonen leads Massa by 1.9 seconds and Hamilton by 5.0 seconds.

Lap 51: Nakajima and Glock pit.

Lap 52: Coulthard pits.

Lap 53: Trulli pits as does Glock, after breaking his wing against Coulthard's left-rear tyre.

Lap 54: Coulthard picks up a left-rear puncture and comes in for a replacement. Button pits.

Kimi Raikkonen takes victory at Circuit Catalunya © LAT

Lap 55: Heidfeld passes Fisichella at Turn One - the first on-track change of position since the opening lap.

Lap 61: Coulthard and Sato - both lapped - swap places. The Scot moves up to 12th.

Lap 66: Raikkonen wins by 3.2 seconds from Massa, Hamilton, Kubica, Webber, Button, Nakajima and Trulli.