Spanish Grand Prix Barcleona

After San Marino's grandstand finish between championship leader, Fernando Alonso and hard charging reigning champ, Michael Schumacher, which has to be one of the most exciting closing stages of a race we have witnessed for some time, attention now turns to the next round in Barcelona.The fast and flowing circuit is a major feature on every teams testing programme as it offers the full range of corners, including a long straight. Few tracks test aerodynamic efficiency to the same level as this. The layout coupled with the pleasant climate makes this one of the world's premier venues in international motorsport. Unfortunately the extensive testing carried out by the teams means there is unlikely to be any surprises with the usual status quo being restored. Ferrari came back hard in San Marino and Schumacher demonstrated a devastating pace from the F2005/Bridgestone package to recover from a failed qualifying lap and clinch second place just behind the eventual winner. Popular opinion suggests the advantage was far too great to be simply improvements to the chassis meaning Bridgestone produced a better tyre for the day. Whilst this is probably true, the car was certainly on the money and Barcelona is not all that dissimilar.Alonso is certainly the form driver in F1 at the moment, seemingly on a roll with three wins and a healthy championship lead. Undoubtedly he will be concerned about Ferraris improvement in form, although the way he dealt with the pressure Schumacher was handing out shows he is not one to be easily forced into a mistake. Recent testing with a revised specification engine, the RS25B, has left Alonso grinning so he can be confident that he will have a good shot of winning his home GP.With the excitement of the closing stages in the last GP, it is easy to forget that early on Kimi Raikkonen was cruising in the lead and looked uncatchable in the pacy Mclaren until a freak driveshaft failure put him out of the race. The Mclaren has looked on the pace all year round, suffering from a series of unfortunate circumstances combining to disguise it's true potential.The law of averages suggests it must be Kimi's time to take a win anytime soon. With teammate Montoya still out due to a freak tennis/motorbike accident leaves a seat open for Spaniard Pedro De La Rosa to fill. The regular test driver has stepped up to the mark admirably in his race outings so far driving maturely and quickly to good effect. He would dearly love to win his home GP, if only to show other teams he is good enough for a regular race seat.A storm of controversy has erupted around the BAR Brit Jenson Button used to take third place in San Marino. Post race scrutinising revealed that the car had a small "secondary" fuel tank which could be drained during the race, allowing the chassis to run underweight. To my mind this is simply a clever interpretation of the rules although the sports governing body have taken a somewhat harsher approach. Former world champion, Jacques Villeneuve, scored some much needed points by netting 6th in San Marino. This helps take much of the pressure off him and he seems to have found some much needed pace from the Sauber. Undoubtedly there is still much to be done for this to be considered a successful comeback but at least we are catching glimpses of the old JV once again. Looking at the qualifying battle and really it all hangs on the Michelin/Bridgestone tyre war as to who will clinch it. Kimi at 9/2 is a decent price considering he was the fastest guy in San Marino and the Mclaren has set a series of fastest laps this season.Moving on to the race and again the tyre battle will hold the key. The winner is almost certainly going to be from Alonso, Raikkonen or Schumacher, although an excellent price is given for ella and lets not forget he won the opening round in great style. My preference though is to take the reigning champion at a best price 11/8 (Bluesquare)