Rounding out the top ten shootout were Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen, the duo starting up in eighth and ninth place thanks to Kubica's penalty.

Elsewhere on the grid, things between 11th and 22nd proved closer than usual, the improved pace of Scuderia Toro Rosso and Spyker marking two of the closest qualifying sessions seen this season.

Indeed, with only six drivers to be eliminated in the first qualifying phase and up to ten drivers having experienced a bit of time down in the lower end of the field over the course of the weekend, the opening session was always expected to be more exciting than usual.

And exciting it was, because while the identity of those in the drop zone on paper will surprise few, it was only after a thrilling final few seconds that flattered to deceive and kept everyone guessing until the very final car had crossed the finish line.

Indeed, with the circuit seemingly improving by several tenths as the 15-minutes progressed, those who left it as late as possible were rewarded with a spot in the second phase of qualifying. As such, the losers proved to be Sebastian Vettel, Rubens Barrichello, Takuma Sato, Adrian Sutil, Anthony Davidson and Sakon Yamamoto.

As a measure of the drastic changes made at the end of the session though, Vettel had been seventh fastest even after the clock had run down but was bumped down the leaderboard at a furious rate as those behind went quicker.

The equally close tussle behind the top four came to a head in the second phase, the gaps between fifth down to 16th prompting another mad dash for the finish line with the seconds ticking down in a bid to secure a spot inside the top ten.

However, unlike the first session, the track in the closing stages was not giving up the same amount of grip as it was and only a handful of drivers managed to improve on their times and guarantee that they would achieve a spot in top half of the grid.

Again, those that did make it and those that did not necessarily prompt many surprises given current form, with those missing the cut proving Giancarlo Fisichella for the fourth time in five races, Ralf Schumacher in 12th, David Coulthard in 13th, Jenson Button in 14th, Vitantonio Liuzzi in 15th and Alex Wurz in 16th, all of which having failed to improve on their time.

Nonetheless, all of those, barring Wurz, will get to move up a place by virtue of Kubica's grid penalty.