I missed qualifying due to a flight this morning, so did not see Mark Webber end Sebastian Vettel’s string of four consecutive pole positions in Catalunya. But the real-time Twitterstream chat hosted by BBC Sport is almost as good as being there (except perhaps for Nick Heidfeld’s Lotus-Renault going up in flames in Q1 due to exhaust overheating).

BBC Sport’s Andrew Benson: “Apologies for my protracted absence, but I’ve been spending the lunch break ferreting around in the paddock, dodging the huge crowds outside the Ferrari motorhome, where Spanish hero Fernando Alonso was preparing for qualifying. A lot of the chat was about this row over exhaust-blown diffusers. I’m told the reason the FIA was forced to U-turn on its ban and delay it for three races was that the teams pointed out to them that, actually, the rules did not say what the FIA said they said — and that there were no grounds for ruling it illegal. At the same time, the shadow of a potential protest of all the teams using it — everyone except Williams, Virgin and Hispania — remains.”

BBC Sport | F1.
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