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Alonso stuns Spanish crowd
4:42pm Saturday 26th April 2008
KIMI Raikkonen snatched pole position from Fernando Alonso in the dying moments of a remarkable qualifying session for Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix.
Alonso stunned and thrilled his home crowd at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya when he sat on provisional pole in his Enstone-built Renault after the clock had counted down to zero.
But world champion Raikkonen, the only man on track behind him, became the fourth different driver in four races this season to snatch pole ahead of the 66-lap race.
Raikkonen's Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa and the BMW Sauber of Robert Kubica are on the second row of the grid, with Lewis Hamilton a lowly fifth - his worst position of the season.
Hamilton has McLaren team-mate Heikki Kovalainen behind him in sixth, with the Red Bull of Mark Webber seventh and Jarno Trulli eighth in his Toyota.
BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld is ninth, with the second Renault of Nelson Piquet in the top ten for the first time this season.
Brackley-based Honda's Rubens Barrichello will start from 11th, followed by the Grove-built Williams of Kazuki Nakajima and the second Honda of Jenson Button.
Editor's choice
The Mole and Chicken, Easington, near Thame
One of the pictures on this page gives a good impression of the delights to be enjoyed at the Mole and Chicken on one of those sunny days that now seem as far as can be from our present situation.
Early taste of Christmas wine
Next week is The Oxford Times Wine Club Christmas Tasting and, with just four weeks to go until Christmas Day, it is an excellent opportunity to sample a specially-selected range of wines for the festive season.
Dylan Moran: New Theatre, Oxford
‘I was the first person to discover that if you infected a person with Marmite, he would stand up and bark at the moon.” “Everybody under the age of 35 has the intelligence of raspberry jam.” “Children can hear vegetables hiding.”
Sleeping Beauty, Chipping Norton Theatre
There’s nothing King Couer-de-Loup likes more than a good battle: “We’ll march on King Florizel’s wet and wicked army,” he proclaims. His Queen is not so sure, however. She would rather her husband stayed around: there’s the christening of their daughter Princess Aurora to arrange for a start. And he certainly can’t go out and fight looking like that: “Your chain mail’s got a ladder in it,” she wails.
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