Michael Schumacher on pole again, a different - but expected - look to the hierarchy but an unexpected bounce back from Williams - at the expense of McLaren. The extraordinary thing about qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix was that Michael Schumacher improved by some 0.8s on the final run to snatch pole from Rubens Barrichello.

As I hoped/expected, Rubens was right there in practice and qualifying. As Ross Brawn has observed, he really does seem to have got the hang of the new F2002. Indeed, Michael Schumacher actually went over towards Rubens’s settings in qualifying - and poor old Rubens paid the price.

But this time, the Brazilian is positive. He knows that the dirty side of the circuit has to be cleaned and will do what he can. He was quickest in all three speed traps - ahead of Michael Schumacher - and second only to Olivier Panis at the end of the straight. All in all, he was on top of the job.

I’m not saying he’s going to win this race, but you can’t discount him. You can’t say he’s going to beat Michael Schumacher off the grid, but given the opportunity, he will be right with his teammate. And he may be the only driver to make a race of it.

In this afternoon’s Formula 3000 race, we saw Sebastien Bourdais pressured for lap after lap by Giorgio Pantano, but the Italian could never really challenge the Frenchman. Occasionally he pulled alongside, but there was nothing more threatening. Only when Bourdais succumbed to the pressure on the very last lap and his gripless car slid wide could Pantano finally get by.

I mention this because we could have the same scenario tomorrow. This circuit is not an easy one on which to overtake. We have to be prepared that we may not see much overtaking in the race, and that tactics are going to be very important.

Off-circuit, we have seen Jaguar screw up their fuel: Eddie Irvine has had all his qualifying times cancelled and will start at the back of the grid. And there has been the case of the Minardi front wings, which have caused two alarming incidents whose consequences might have been so much worse.

Thankfully, neither of the cars went into a Mercedes-type loop but landed safely back on their wheels, but Paul Stoddart has happily made the sensible decision to have all front wings reinforced - which was the only responsible course of action.

So Jaguar’s day - which had seemed relatively encouraging - has turned out badly again. Alex Yoong did pretty well to get into the race, and Mark Webber is within 3.4s of a Ferrari in a Minardi-Asiatech. Williams have surprised themselves with second on the grid, Kimi Raikkonen is again ahead of David Coulthard and Jenson Button again ahead of Jarno Trulli. Heinz-Harald Frentzen is in the top ten.

So there are one or two surprises; I can only hope that we shall have some surprises tomorrow. One of the lighter moments has been provided by a poster hung on a spectator fence which said ‘Irvine. I’m pregnant’ whatever that means!

Tomorrow is apparently going to be celebrity laden. We have already seen Alain Prost, Jean Alesi and Carol Voorderman, while some people are talking about Sandra Bullock, Nicholas Cage, Steve McManaman and Robert de Niro! Wow. Hope they have a good race to watch!

Bob Constanduros