There the Teutonic trio were joined by 14th-placed Button and 15th-placed Bourdais, whilst the top ten was composed of Hamilton, Massa, Kovalainen, late-improver Alonso, Raikkonen, Kubica, Trulli, Coulthard, Vettel and Webber – preserving Hamilton, Kovalainen, Massa and Kubica's status as the only four drivers to have made it through into Q3 on every occasion this season.


Trulli was the first man out in Q3, while there were suspicions that McLaren had fuelled Hamilton lighter than Kovalainen. Raikkonen made two mistakes early on in his first lap in the session – followed by a third later round – and was barely two hundredths of a second faster than the Toyota, with Massa blowing his team-mate's time out of the water by some eight tenths of a second.

Kovalainen also left the track on the entry to the stadium section, with a dust-obscured Hamilton surprisingly four tenths shy of Massa and Alonso incredibly splitting the pair of them, putting the cat well amongst the pigeons at both McLaren and Ferrari.

With two-and-a-half minutes remaining, Kubica was also in front of Raikkonen, and countryman Kovalainen – with just one lap left – was bottom of all the top ten runners following his earlier error.

Raikkonen was closer on his next effort, albeit still not quite close enough, but his more controlled manner inside the cockpit seemed to pay dividends, as the 28-year-old moved up to second place, six hundredths away from Massa.

That time, though, was soon obliterated as the Brazilian went almost half a second faster still, with Kovalainen right on the ragged edge through the final corner and visibly wringing his McLaren's neck as he moved up into second place.

The drama was still not over, however, as Hamilton – now down in fifth and under some pressure – stole the top spot away from Ferrari by less than two tenths of a second, with an inspired Trulli and Alonso rubbing salt into the wounds for Maranello by placing respectively fourth and fifth, ahead of a distinctly off-form Raikkonen, Kubica a solid if unspectacular seventh and the Red Bull-backed trio of Webber, Vettel and Coulthard rounding out the top ten.