Raikkonen quick off the mark

Kimi Raikkonen made a clean getaway to lead the Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona today.

The Finn was out to avenge his Imola disappointment when he was robbed of victory by a failure on his McLaren and he made the perfect start from pole position.

Home favourite Fernando Alonso, the world championship leader, was cheered on by a capacity 115,000 crowd and he kept himself in contention for a fourth consecutive win by overtaking Mark Webber to move into second.

World champion Michael Schumacher started eighth but was expected to move up the order when his fuel strategy kicked in. He moved up one spot to seventh.

The race was interrupted immediately though when neither Minardi got off the grid, forcing the safety car out.

Webber lost further ground to slip behind Toyota's Ralf Schumacher while at the restart on lap three Juan Pablo Montoya overtook old rival Michael Schumacher for seventh.

Montoya was lucky not to lose that spot on lap eight when he spun at turn eight, but he recovered in time to fend off Schumacher.

Raikkonen was easing clear at the front thanks to a succession of fastest laps, with Alonso dropping over six seconds off the pace after 10 laps as he was unable to match his speed.

Vitantonio Liuzzi’s second grand prix ended swiftly when the Red Bull driver spun on lap 10 at turn seven.