First time since 1979 for Ferrari

For the first time since 1979, the most famous motor race in the world will have a completely Ferrari front row, thanks to Felipe Massa's third pole of the season and the team's fourth, and Kimi Raikkonen's second place. It is cause for pleasure but not celebration, as the real job and the points will only be allocated after the cars have completed 78 laps of the slowest, but very difficult and challenging street circuit.

However, the elements that make this circuit unique also mean it is the hardest place in the world to overtake another car, so starting at the front is a bigger advantage than at any other weekend on the Formula 1 calendar. As Kimi Raikkonen pointed out when taking part in the post-qualifying press conference, the one time overtaking becomes far more likely is if the track is wet and the threat of rain finally materialized today, hitting the track for part of this morning's final hour of free practice and then again shortly after the end of qualifying.

Tomorrow's forecast is also for rain and the possibilities for dealing with various strategies depending at which point in the race the rain might arrive or stop are almost limitless. The Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro front row is significant as in recent times, even when it has been the dominant team in the sport, the Prancing Horse has usually been outpaced by the Silver Arrow of McLaren-Mercedes. But this year, the Anglo-German team is on the second row, with Lewis Hamilton third and Heikki Kovalainen who crashed this morning, in fourth spot. Robert Kubica is fifth for BMW-Sauber, sharing row three with the Williams-Toyota of Nico Rosberg.

There have been surprisingly few cars crashing into the barriers this weekend, however, qualifying saw David Coulthard have the biggest incident, as his Red Bull-Renault crashed coming out of the high speed tunnel, before careering off down the escape road. The car was badly damaged, but the driver was uninjured.