Alonso in good shape to grab 4th straight F1 win

Fernando Alonso practiced little for Saturday’s qualifying session for the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona, Spain. But the Spaniard apparently didn’t need much preparation.

Hoping to win his fourth straight Formula One race, Alonso clocked the second-quickest time of the session, just .016 seconds behind Toyota’s Jarno Trulli. Kimi Raikkonen of McLaren was third, followed by Toyota’s Ralf Schumacher in a tightly bunched field.

The real test comes today, with the second qualifying session followed by the race before 115,000 spectators, including 10,000 fans from Alonso’s home region of Asturias and Spanish King Juan Carlos.

“It was something special for me, for sure,” said Alonso. “It was probably my best lap in a Formula One car so far.”

Trulli, who clocked a time of 1 minute, 14.795 seconds, is hoping to bring Toyota its first victory. The Japanese car builder entered Formula One in 2002 and has a huge budget, estimated to rival the $400 million of Ferrari.

Ward gets another crack at Indy

Jeff Ward, 43, one of the most decorated riders in motorcycle history, might seem like a fixture at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. But it has been three years since he last drove a car in the Indy 500.

He finished ninth in 2002, his fourth top-10 finish in a six-year stretch.

But Ward’s Indy-car connection had been severed in recent years. He admitted he was surprised when Tony George called to offer the second seat for the recently established Vision Racing.

“I’m really excited about it,” he said. “The team’s new, Tony’s excited, we’ll have a good crew, good motors, help from Dallara … and if we can get the setup, we’ll have a chance to be pretty good.”