Spanish Grand Prix Qualifying

Another topsy-turvy and slightly bewildering qualifying session, with Lews Hamilton claiming pole position for tomorrow's Spanish Grand Prix, in the end by a relatively emphatic margin, even if the margin of his achieving it did not appear that tranquil as it unfolded.  As I write it this, however, Hamilton may yet face a penalty for an alleged technical infringement.

Although the composition of much of the top ten was not greatly surprising, eyebrows will have been raised by the presence of Pastor Maldonado and Fernando Alonso in second and third positions.  The Venezuelan has looked very confident and focused in Barcelona, and looked a genuine threat to secure pole, the Williams chassis working very efficiently.

Alonso managed to extract every ounce of performance from the Ferrari, his own efforts combining with upgrades to the car instituted at this event.  By contrast, Felipe Massa struggled, the onboard television pictures vividly illustrating the awkward and troublesome handling of his machine.  He languishes in seventeenth place, and has a hard task in front of him.

While Hamilton looked firmly "in the zone" today, Jenson Button was ill-at-ease, missing out on Q3, and seemingly unhappy with the handling of his car.  As we have seen before,  a lowly grid position need not necessarily be an impediment to the Englishman, but this time around the issues with his McLaren will need to be remedied to enable him to race aggressively and confidently. Some of his comments indicate that he is a little bit lost this weekend.

Of the Red Bulls, Sebastian Vettel has looked strong, but appeared to subordinate grid position to the imperatives of race tyre strategy.  He looks in good shape for Sunday.  His team-mate was afflicted by a mix-up with the pits. Unlike Button, Mark Webber seems quite content with the behaviour of the car underneath him.

As has become the norm, Lotus, Sauber and Mercedes are well placed, and Lotus at least can be expected to figure prominently in the race itself, both cars looking stable and their drivers Grosjean and Raikkonen comfortable.

One driver who will be disappointed is Bruno Senna, who suffered a spin in Q1, and starts eighteenth. Whether this mishap was a case of trying too hard in an attempt to match the pace of his team-mate Maldonado, we can only speculate.  He will require a solid race performance in order to make amends, and redeem himself in the eyes of the Williams team. With an effective chassis at his disposal, this is not beyond his capabilities.

Predicting the results of this season's races has been a thankless task, to say the least.  One thing is easy to predict though, and that is that much of the talk both before and during the race will surround those things manufactured by Pirelli which are situated on each corner of the car.

Whatever transpires, it seems that tomorrows contest may well belie Barcelona's reputation for producing sterile, forgettable encounters.