FORMULA 1 Live

- Jenson Button takes pole and his pit crew yell 'awesome lap!' down the radio... Vettel second, Barrichello third. Button only began his final lap with twon seconds remaining...

0' JENSON BUTTON!!!! POLE POSITION!!! AMAZING!!! The last man on track denies Sebastian Vettel!! What a finale.

0' Can Vettel overhaul Barrichello? YES!!! Pole for Vettel!! 1:20.660!

1' Barrichello goes for his first pole lap since 2004... he is up nearly two tenths after sector one, nearly three tenths after sector two... 1:20.762, he is fastest by over half a second!

3' Has Barrichello got a problem? He takes over a minute to get through the first sector... he doesn't appear to have a problem.

4' All of these times are being set with race fuel, so they will not be as quick as in Q2. Vettel goes quickest! 1:21.301.

5' 1:21.442 for Barrichello, who has been outperforming Jenson Button all weekend and is really in the zone.

6' Glock goes a little quicker than Trulli but it is not great stuff. Both men will come back out for a final dash for pole.

7' Jarno Trulli gets the first timed lap in, 1:22.5 is not good enough for the Toyota man.

Q3 Green light, off we go for Q3 - 10 minutes only.

- Lewis Hamilton says his tyres were not in the best shape and his McLaren is not any better than at the last race.

- Kimi Raikkonen says of his blunder: "It was my mistake, we didn't do a very good first run and then we thought we were going to get through."

- Real disappointment for Lewis Hamilton. Fernando Alonso scraped through by the skin of his teeth in 10th, much to the crowd's delight.

0' Out comes the flag. The men to go out are 11-Nakajima, 12-Piquet, 13-Heidfeld, 14-Hamilton, 15-Buemi. At the top it was 1-Barrichello, 2-Webber, 3-Glock, 4-Massa, 5-Button.

0' Hamilton in big trouble... he goes up to 10th but Jenson Button immediately relegates his compatriot. Barrichello fastest.

1' Rosberg stays 14th after a poor lap and has one last chance.

2' Massa is on a hot lap and he is dead level with Vettel at the first split. He uses a bit of KERS and this is a good lap... 1:20.149 for P2 behind Vettel.

3' Jenson Button will certainly need another flier - he lies 10th with three minutes remaining.

5' Lewis Hamilton lies 11th at the moment and he needs another big lap.

7' Red Bull one-two following a 1:20.007 from Webber.

8' Buemi runs wide into the gravel but makes only the slightest contact with the tyre wall and he drives off with dust all over his car.

9' Vettel fastest with a 1:20.220 - great lap and he should be OK from there.

11' Sebastien Buemi is the first man to get on the timing sheet, but he may well need better than a 1:21.499 to make the top 10.

13' Heikki Kovalainen says his failure was simply down to a lack of grip. But he was a second and a half slower than McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

14' Ferrari have admitted that they thought they were safe and decided not to send Raikkonen out for a final run. Dreadful error.

Q2 Off we go... 15 cars, 15 minutes.

- Massa was quickest and Raikkonen goes out without even going for a final lap. 16-Raikkonen, 17-Bourdais, 18-Kovalainen, 19-Sutil, 20-Fisichella. They are out. What a blunder by Ferrari.

0' Out comes the chequered flag... Barrichello is safe, and that pushes Piquet into the bottom five. Trulli saves himself and RAIKKONEN IS OUT!!!

1' Alonso is up into fifth and he is safe... Trulli to 10th. Kovalainen is a goner.

2' Kovalainen goes 14th but he could be in big trouble. Alonso and Barrichello are to come and the Finn could fall in Q1.

3' Now Rubens Barrichello is in the red zone - he needs to act fast and hope there is no traffic.

4' The bottom five as things stand: Alonso, Kovalainen, Fisichella, Sutil, Heidfeld.

6' Massa top. 1:20.484 for the Brazilian and Ferrari continue to go well.

7' All the big guns are on soft tyres. This season is so competitive the big guns cannot get by with harder rubber - they need to go all out from the word go.

9' Jenson Button is struggling to record a traffic-free flying lap and is down in 10th. Sutil runs wide and Vettel goes quickest with a 1:20.715 ahead of Felipe Massa.

10' As Glock goes fastest, Massa and Alonso come out on to the track. It is about to get interesting.

12' Better from the Toyotas - Trulli clocks a 1:22.369 with Timo Glock just behind. Meanwhlie Kovalainen is battling opposite lock, sliding all over the track.

14' Kovalainen is still on top, and has improved to 1:23.095. Only five drivers have done flying laps and all the big guns are still in the pits.

17' Heikki Kovalainen sets the first flying lap of the day, 1:23.718. That is not quick, but he is on cold-ish hard tyres. The Finn suffered a big crash here last season and will want to take home a better memory of this track.

Q1 We're under way! A big crowd here at the Circuit de Catalunya and there is plenty of support for Fernando Alonso, who will view Q3 as a minimum target. Fernando Alonso driver profile

- We have an extensive, up-to-the-minute photo feed from Barcelona. Click here for the latest pictures

- And in other news, Bernie Ecclestone doesn't believe in the credit crunch. Bernie: What crunch?

- But the future of Kimi Raikkonen in F1 has once again come into question with the Finn threatening to quit over the spending cap. Kimi: I could quit

- Ferrari have their new aero package and had a one-two in free practice this morning. Ferrari make statement of intent

- I'm sure you know how qualifying works, but here's a reminder. All 20 cars take part in a 20-minute session (Q1) at the end of which the bottom five are eliminated. Next comes a 15-minute session (Q2) to eliminate another five. Then the final 10 take part in Q3, a 10-minute session to determine the front of the grid.

- Welcome to qualifying for the Spanish GP from the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona.