Motor Sport/Spanish Grand Prix:Fernando Alonso embraced the challenge of his home grand prix weekend in champion style yesterday by setting the fastest time in the first free practice session for tomorrow's first European round of the title chase at the Circuit de Catalunya.
Signalling his intention to take charge of the world championship contest, Alonso made the most of the development work he had completed during last week's test at the track near Barcelona to lap his McLaren-Mercedes 0.2 seconds faster than the Renault R27s of Giancarlo Fisichella and Heikki Kovalainen. The pursuing pair briefly distorted the overall picture by doing runs on a very low fuel load in the closing moments of the second 90-minute session.
Yet ignoring the hard mathematics of this challenging track, where a reduction of 10kg in fuel load translates to a lap time improvement of 0.3sec, Alonso served notice of his credentials while emphasising to Lewis Hamilton, fifth in yesterday's second session, that he has no intention of surrendering his de facto team leadership in the McLaren squad.
"It was a great start to my home grand prix with a trouble-free Friday practice," said Alonso. "We went through the usual programme of tyre evaluation and set-up work, but had a pretty good handling balance early on. We have definitely improved the car since Bahrain. I look forward to the rest of the weekend and really want to do my best for all the supporters."
As for the Ferrari team, Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen ended the day fourth and sixth, but both are confident they can challenge for pole in this afternoon's qualifying session.
Competing in one's home grand prix either makes or breaks a driver's resolve. Ayrton Senna always reckoned that the stimulus of racing in front of his home crowd could be worth up to half a second a lap, while Nigel Mansell felt additionally empowered by the "Mansell-mania" that roared from the grandstands during his victories in 1991 and 1992.
Rubens Barrichello, Honda team-mate to Jenson Button, said: "When I was new to Formula One early in my career I used to find competing in my home grand prix was a slightly intimidating experience. But as I grew in experience all the support of the home crowd helped lift me, and I'm sure it will be the same for Fernando here in Spain this weekend."
Niki Lauda, who only once managed to win his home grand prix in Austria, agreed up to a point with Barrichello's assessment, but made the point that constant attention from people you see only once a year at your home race can add to the pressure.
"It was always very tempting for me to fly back to Vienna after I had finished practising at the Osterreichring just to get away from the relentless pressure and all the competition for your time," he said.
"It's obviously great to have the support of your home crowd, but it does bring with it its own sort of pressure. Having said that, I think that Fernando has what it takes to handle whatever pressure is thrown at him."
Singapore will be the next venue on the Formula One trail in 2008 when it is scheduled to hold its first grand prix, which may be the first event to be held under floodlights to dovetail with peak European TV viewing slots.
