As has become the norm in the GP2 Series of late, the qualifying order established by the lone half-hour session on the opening day of the Monaco Grand Prix meeting received a shake-up overnight.

Once again, potential frontrunners have been affected by the hand-out of penalties after qualifying, with Andreas Zuber and Vitaly Petrov both punished for errors of judgement on Thursday in the Principality.

Having watched his Piquet Sports team-mate Pastor Maldonado take a big step towards claiming a third straight win in Monaco - including one in the World Series by Renault - Zuber saw his provisional ninth on the grid become 24th as he was handed a massive 15-place penalty for causing what was deemed an avoidable collision with Adam Carroll during the morning's free practice session.

Series returnee Carroll ended his session in the wall, and at the bottom of the times as a result of the contact. The Briton will start twelfth on the reformed grid.

“I'm obviously very disappointed about the qualifying result – with the penalty to boot," the Austrian sighed, "This means than I won't start from fifth row but from the last place. The only hope I have is that it might rain tomorrow. Shouldn't this be the case, then I'll just enjoy the race and, hopefully, have a lot of fun!”

Joining Zuber in being demoted at perhaps the most grid-crucial event of the year, Petrov will start his Barwa International Campos Team entry five places further back than his original 13th - surprisingly low for the Russian - after being accused of driving 'an unsafe car' at the end of the same free practice session.

Both Petrov and Campos team-mate Ben Hanley found the same Ste Devote wall in the session but, while the Briton parked up after his contact, the Russian continued to circulate.

Maldonado will share the front row with iSport's Bruno Senna in Friday morning's feature race, with the unexpected second row pairing of Mike Conway (Trident) and Adrian Valles (BCN) hoping to claim at least a podium finish.