Published>Wed, May 05 10 06:26 PM
Pole position looks like the magic ingredient to turn Fernando Alonso's first race in Spain as a Ferrari driver into a truly happy homecoming this weekend.
More than any other track on the Formula One calendar, Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya rewards the driver who qualifies quickest.
The last nine races there, and 15 of the 19 since 1991, have been won from pole -- bad news for anyone expecting more of the thrills served up since a somewhat soporific season-opener in Bahrain in March.
If Sunday's race revives concern about the lack of overtaking, double world champion Alonso will do his best to give the locals plenty to cheer as well as revving up his title challenge.
"Barcelona is always a very special race for me, I will try to make everyone happy in Spain. I know people will expect a lot from us but I think we are ready for the challenge and in Barcelona we should be very competitive," he told the team's website (www.ferrari.com).
"Normally in Barcelona you need a car that is aerodynamically very well set up, there are a lot of very long corners," added Alonso, third overall and 11 points behind McLaren's early pacesetter Jenson Button.
"Also you need historically to start at the front. Being in pole position gives you a very high possibility to win the race so we will try to start at the front."
WINNING CAR
Ferrari have not had a pole position since 2008 while Red Bull have maintained a stranglehold on the top slot this season with four in a row.
While nobody has won from pole so far this year, Barcelona could change that.
The first European round of the season could see a shake-up in the pecking order, with teams introducing significant modifications and new packages now they are home from long-haul races in the Middle and Far East.
Alonso won in Bahrain and will have been boosted by the governing FIA allowing the Italian team to modify their engine, within the regulations, to overcome reliability problems.
"The balance of the first four races is good," said Alonso, the only Spaniard to have won his home race. "We made some mistakes so we lost some points but overall I think we are in a very good position for the championship.
"We have a very competitive car and a winning car. So I think overall it is now time to show everybody we really want this championship more than anyone else. It's time to deliver now."
Lewis Hamilton, Alonso's former team mate during their uneasy year together at McLaren in 2007, would love to deny him victory and take his first of the season instead.
After watching new team mate Jenson Button win in Australia and China, the 2008 champion is fourth overall and level on points with Alonso. He has also done more overtaking already this year than some drivers manage in a season.
"We've got a couple of fairly significant upgrades coming for this race," said the 25-year-old, "and while it would be naive to think these will move us up the pecking order ... we're optimistic they'll once again help us to bridge the gap to the leading cars."
Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber fall into that category and they too are confident of converting their qualifying pace into race success.
"We are optimistic at all venues now," Webber told reporters last week. "We saw the cars being quick everywhere, we've just got to have some clean Sunday afternoons really."
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