* Engine Change - drops 10 places on the grid

Felipe Massa took pole position and his fourth of the season by just 0.07 of a second from Lewis Hamilton with Kimi Raikkonen third.  Fernando Alonso has been out of luck, missing all but the final practice this morning due to a brake sensor problem and on the first lap of Q3 he had to come into the pits with what was thought to be an engine problem, sitting in the car in the hope that he could rejoin, until the extent of the damage was known, a broken gearbox.  At least he will not have the 10 place penalty.  Returnee Robert Kubica took an impressive fourth place on his first outing since his horrendous Canadian GP crash.  Renault claimed the third row Giancarlo Fisichella edging a duel with team mate Heikki Kovalainen throughout Q3.  Nick Heidfeld, suffering back pains on friday just managed to keep ahead of Jarno Trulli with Nico Rosberg putting in another good performance to take ninth place ahead of the Alonso who will be out for damage limitation tomorrow. Honda RA107 upgrades could not get Button and Barichello into Q3.  Red Bull´s Webber struggled with rear grip and David Coulthard gremlins returned, an electronic problem in his RB3’s quick shift gearbox left him unable to move up the gears from fifth coming out of the Adelaide hairpin on the first lap in Q2

Incidents were in the first lap of the race when Anthony Davidson misjudged the turn one concertina affect and sliding into the back of Tonio Liuzzi’s Toro Rosso, collecting the spinning Italian and causing substantial damage both cars.  He later admitted his error.  At the Adelaide hairpin on lap 1 with the pack streaming through Jarno Trulli left his braking too late on the inside of corner,  clipped the back of Heikki Kovalainen´s Renault causing the car to spin in front of the pack, forcing the Toyota driver to retirement, Fernando Alonso having to take avoiding action having made up two places by Adelaide.  Kovalainen went to the back of the field and then into the pits.  Albers Spyker had to be wheeled of the start line as it would not start and his team mate Sutil had an incident in the pits when he drove off with the fuel line still attached to the Spyker!