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******SPOILERS******
Raikkonen extends title lead
Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen has won the Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya to extend his lead in the drivers' championship.
The world champion took his second victory of the season, leading home team-mate Felipe Massa, with Lewis Hamilton taking the final podium place for McLaren-Mercedes.
However, Hamilton's team-mate Heikki Kovalainen suffered a major accident on lap 22 of an incident-filled 66-lap race.
Having apparently suffered a left-front wheel rim failure, the Finn's car plunged off the circuit at the entry to turn three at some 150 mph before hitting a tyre wall head on at unabated speed.
As the safety car appeared on track, marshals and medical personnel worked to release Kovalainen from the wrecked chassis - the front of the McLaren appearing to have been ripped off.
He was then taken to the track's medical centre before subsequently being helicoptered to hospital.
Luckily, however, Kovalainen was conscious and appears to have suffered no injury beyond concussion.
The race eventually continued, with BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica finishing fourth ahead of Red Bull's Mark Webber.
Honda's Jenson Button scored his first points of the season with sixth, ahead of Williams driver Kazuki Nakajima and Toyota's Jarno Trulli.
Subdued
Barcelona has a habit of turning polesitters into race winners and so it proved again, with polesitter Raikkonen getting the drop Massa, who subdued the home crowd by passing Fernando Alonso on the run down to turn one.
Hamilton also got the drop on the fourth-starting Kubica, but lap one proved chaotic at the back of the pack as Adrian Sutil spun, his Force India being collected by Sebastian Vettel's Toro Rosso.
The safety car thus appeared and, upon resumption of racing, the Ferrari one-two edged away from the third-placed Alonso, who held position until making his opening stop on lap 16.
Massa and Raikkonen both made their opening stops three laps later, with Hamilton then leading for three laps before his own first stop.
It was at this stage that Kovalainen left the track - the safety car coming out once more and staying out for six laps.
Running a long opening stint after qualifying ninth, BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld had inherited the lead by this stage.
However, because rules state that the pit lane cannot open until cars settle behind the safety car in the correct order, the German had to pit regardless to avoid running out of fuel.
He rejoined in fifth place but, having to take a stop-go penalty, Heidfeld eventually finished back in ninth.
In a race which ultimately brought nine retirements, Alonso pulled off the circuit from fifth place on lap 35 - his Renault suffering an engine failure.
Rubens Barrichello - who lost his front wing exiting the pitlane during the second SC period after apparently colliding with Force India's Giancarlo Fisichella - was also out by this point, with Nico Rosberg retiring his Williams on the pit straight on lap 41.
The high attrition rate allowed the likes of Fisichella and even Super Aguri's Takuma Sato to briefly threaten for points.
Button takes advantage
However, the two drivers who eventually took advantage were Button who, after starting 13th on the grid ran as high as fifth place, and Nakajima, who started 12th.
The race leaders made their second stops on laps 47 and 48 and, although Hamilton took a few tenths out of Massa during the closing laps, the order remained static.
After qualifying ten places behind team-mate Webber on the grid, David Coulthard eventually finished 12th, the Scot having yet another coming together during a race, this time with Toyota's Timo Glock.
Meanwhile, Anthony Davidson retired on lap eight after one of his car's radiators was punctured by a piece of track debris.
SPANISH GRAND PRIX images - Sunday in Catalunya | MORE HERE!
After 4 races the Drivers and Teams Standings are:
DRIVERS:
TEAMS:
Kovalainen safe after high-speed accident in Spain
McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen has been taken by medical helicopter to a Barcelona hospital for precautionary checks after crashing heavily midway through Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix. According to McLaren, Kovalainen is conscious, in a stable condition and has no visible signs of injury.
Kovalainen plunged off the circuit at speed at Turn Nine after an apparent failure on the front-left of the car, which ended up buried deep in the tyre wall as a result. A lengthy safety-car period followed and culminated with the Finn being stretchered away to the medical centre, waving to the crowd as he went.
McLaren are investigating the cause of the accident, which is believed to have resulted from something causing the front-left rim to separate from the tyre. Latest reports on Kovalainen, meanwhile, suggest he is suffering from nothing worse than concussion.
Heikki Kovalainen crash in Barcelona 2008
Good job Scuderia again, seems that Ferrari starts go find their pase and that's great news for all the red fans. 
Hoping the best for Kovalainen!