Patronise F1

A weather-messed qualifying session at Monza produced exactly the sort of bonkers grid that the sport perhaps needed, if only to silence all the post-Spa moaning. The rain caught out the likes of Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Raikkonen and Adrian Sutil, leaving a bonkers-looking top ten, and Sebastian Vettel's Toro Rosso on pole.

The opening session was just about as chaotic as they come, with the sodden conditions causing all sorts of visibility issues on a packed racetrack. Morning practice winner Timo Glock was the early pace setter, but he was topped by Heikki Kovalainen, who stayed there for the rest of the session as the rest of the cars swapped positions more often than the eyes could follow.

At times, Hamilton, Sutil, Rosberg, Bourdais and Vettel were up in P2 behind the Finn, as around the track cars slithered off left and right, but in the end Hamilton grabbed the second spot in Q1, albeit some two tenths behind his team mate. Some big names seemed to be in trouble, but the likes of Raikkonen, Massa, Webber and Alonso escaped the dreaded drop zone as the session reached a conclusion, leaving The two Hondas of Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello, Nelson Piquet Jr's Renault, Kazuki Nakajima's Williams and Adrian Sutil's Force India dropping out.

A poor end result for Sutil in particular, who had looked stellar in the difficult early running, but failed to hook up a lap late on. There was a bit of joy for Force India though, as they saw one of their cars escape the opening qualifying session for the first time, Giancarlo Fisichella progressing to Q2.

Q2 was just as mad, all 15 cars piling out onto the wet track right from the start. All still on wet tyres, except for Hamilton, who curiously chose to do an exploratory lap on intermediates, despite the fact that the track was merely getting wetter.

Kovalainen was again busy setting the early pace, with Rosberg again impressing, before Sebastian Vettel grabbed P1 for Toro Rosso, while Kimi Raikkonen had a huge aquaplaning moment as the rain fell and caused the times to slow. Between the silly intermediate test and sideways moments, Raikkonen and Hamilton were sitting 14th and 15th with five minutes to go, and hamilton joined Kimi in having a big moment at Curva Grande as conditions moved from very wet to ludicrous.

In the end, nobody could improve, and Hamilton and Raikkonen begin the race tomorrow right down the back, joining David Coulthard, Fisichella and Robert Kubica in dropping out in the second session. Lucky boy of the session was Felipe Massa, who scraped into Q3 in 10th, by 13 hundredths of a second.

An incredible session then, which climaxed with a motley crew of drivers competing in the final part of the session, and again everyone got out early on. Bourdais went quickest first, but then Kovalainen and later Vettel managed to pip the Frenchman, as Rosberg and Webber set quick times as well.

As the session progressed, once again the rain increased, and once again nobody was able to improve, leaving Vettel free to take a barely-believable pole for Toro Rosso, ahead of Kovalainen, and Mark Webber, who slotted in a quick lap at the end from somewhere. Bourdais also set a shockingly fast time at the end, despite having aquaplaned off on the previous lap, to get 4th, leaving Nico Rosberg 5th and Felipe Massa in 6th.

Further back, Trulli, Alonso, Glock and Heidfeld completed the top ten, without ever really having figured in the final session, though they may well be slightly heavier than some of the front six.

A grid, then, that is packed full of potential for carnage tomorrow. No matter what the weather (and we are likely to get more rain), the route back to the front will not be easy for Raikkonen or Hamilton, while a few of F1's smaller teams have a real chance for a day in the sun (pun intended).

* - Eliminated after second session
** - Eliminated after first session