A great qualifing session before a packed house at Montmelo saw Fernando drive his heart out to stick the Renault on provisional pole, only to be denied at the death by the Kimster who snatched the top spot by just under a tenth.

A Renault up at the top of the field is something we haven't seen for a long time and it will have given the French team a huge boost. An emotional Fernando said afterwards he was not expecting to be so competitive this weekend.

"I knew that only Kimi was running behind so when I crossed the line I knew it was front row in the worst case, so that is something we didn't expect at all, not in this race or maybe during the whole season, so I cannot be more happy than I am now," said the Asturian hero.

"The car feels better," he added. "I am happy with the car and we made a step forward no doubts. We found more at the test when we compared the changes back-to-back and we saw here a clear result, a big improvement in the car. All weekend it has been difficult with the track conditions. For the race we will see what we can do. But this second place of today is more than we expected for the whole weekend."

An up-beat but certainly not ecstatic Pat Symonds spoke in the paddock afterwards and indicated there is still a long way to go. He said he thought a podium finish tomorrow is unlikely and said he still believed there are six cars quicker than the Renaults(Ferrari, McLaren and BMW). He also said he believed McLaren were having a particularly poor weekend.

But Symonds stressed that second place on the grid was a big positive for a team which struggled through all of last year and has had a difficult start to this campaign. "We're not where we want to be. Let's enjoy the moment but let's not pretend it's anything that it isn't - mixing optimisim with realism is quite difficult to do in sport," he said. It will be interesting to see where Fernando pits tomorrow.

Apart from Fernando, significant points were the first pole for Kimi this season and the first time this year he has qualified ahead of Felipe. Once again Robert got in ahead of the McLarens and well ahead of his team-mate. The down to earth Pole is fast establishing himself as the de facto numero uno at BMW. But what of the McLarens? Lewis got in just ahead of Heikki but fifth and sixth on the grid is not where they want to be in a performance which seems to underline that the "silver arrows" are not on the pace just now. The "up and down" Williams team, meanwhile, had a "down" day with Kazuki 12th and Nico 15th.

As I write there is a typically hair-raising GP2 race entertaining the crowd...