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Giancarlo Fisichella in the Force India made history and turned the form book on its head as he took the team's first ever pole position at the daunting Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium. A stunning late lap in the dying seconds of qualifying meant that the Italian highlighted the massive progress the team had made this season. Undoubtedly carrying an aggressive amount of fuel, the Force India has been quick here this weekend; Fisichella was fastest in Q1 and 4th fastest in Q2, when the fastest laps are down in low-fuel configuration. Just to indicate how unlikely this result was, the pre-qualifying odds of Fisichella on pole were 250-1!

If that wasn't quite strange enough, the Toyota of Jarno Trulli was second and Nick Heidfeld in the BMW was 3rd. The Toyota has been quick all weekend long too - the form as ever inexplicable - and Trulli was the fastest of all drivers in the second session of qualifying. Heidfeld, on the other hand, was the fastest driver in the morning practice session.

Rubens Barrichello in the Brawn-Mercedes was the quickest of the championship contenders in 4th place. That was four places better than Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber in the Red Bulls who could only mange 8th and 9th. The mid-field isn't exactly where one mounts a championship challenge from. Webber had another engine failure this morning, and that means he's now about as crippled as his team mate is in terms of engine usage for the rest of the year.

Of the rest of the final session runners, Robert Kubica in the other BMW was 5th, Kimi Raikkonen was 6th in the Ferrari, Timo Glock 7th in the other Toyota, and Nico Rosberg rounded off the top 10.

We heaven't seen both Toyotas and both BMWs in the top 10 all year long; that's how surprising this session was.

Adrian Sutil in the other Force India only managed 11th. The highly valued German would've, on an ordinary day, been delighted. Today he'll be despondent, given where his team mate is.

Lewis Hamilton, who almost made it two wins in two last week at Valencia was down in 12th position. Behind him a double world champion in Fernando Alonso and behind them the current world championship leader, Jenson Button. In fairness to all, the gap in Q2 from P1 down to P14 was only 0.6s... that's how close things were today, and hopefully sets us up for a thrilling race on Sunday.

The Torro Rossos of Sebastian Buemi and Jamie Alguersuari were down in 16th and 17th. Nakajima was 18th and Romain Grosjean was 19th. In 20th and last was once again the hapless Luca Badoer. He did better than he managed in Valencia, but under pressure from the team to wring more out of the car his final attempt ended in dismal failure with a crash and rear damage at Les Combes. Sadly it looks like this race will be the end of Badoer's fairy tale return for Ferrari.

But another fairy tale is under way at Force India, though it will be particularly interesting to see how much fuel they're carrying. That will give us a better indication of the relative pace of each team. That being said, you can be sure the whole of India will be watching tomorrow in the hope that the team can finally win their first ever points in Formula 1.

That, coupled with recent reports that the Sports Ministry has rejected an application from Formula 1 promoters to classify F1 as a sport in India, could be the perfect motivation for a team hoping to silence their critics for good.

The Starting Grid:

Row 1: Fisichella, Trulli
Row 2: Heidfeld, Barrichello
Row 3: Kubica, Raikkonen
Row 4: Glock, Vettel
Row 5: Webber, Rosberg
Row 6: Sutil, Hamilton
Row 7: Alonso, Button
Row 8: Kovalainen, Buemi
Row 9: Alguersuari, Nakajima
Row 10: Grosjean, Badoer

File Photograph Copyright: Mark McArdle

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