Felipe Massa had made most of the running in Q3 and Q2, but at the end of Q1 team mate Michael Schumacher appeared to have done enough to secure yet another pole position, in front of the adoring tifosi.

But just as everyone was preparing to celebrate, Kimi Raikkonen’s McLaren came flying out of the Parabolica, to eclipse Schumacher’s lap of 1m 21.486s with 1m 21.484s. It could not have been choreographed better.

The two of them were in turn just ahead of fleet Nick Heidfeld, who admitted that he was surprised to push his BMW Sauber into third slot with 1m 21.653s, putting Massa back to fourth on 1m 21.704s.

Once again Fernando Alonso had to get used to fifth place, but the Renault had pace. The Spaniard was unlucky to pick up debris after overshooting the first chicane having been short-braked a little by one of the Ferraris. The result was a right-rear puncture and a slow lap crawling back to the pits on the Michelin’s sidewalls. The flying rubber damaged the bodywork, so by the time the Renault went back out it was slightly less than optimised. Alonso then made one very quick stop before blasting into a warm-up lap that he completed with a second to spare before the chequered flag fell. As a result he was able to hoist himself from eighth to fifth with a lap of 1m 21.704s. He’ll be a threat on Sunday.