Lewis Hamilton stormed to the 15th pole position of his career ahead of tomorrow's Italian Grand Prix.
The reigning world champion saved it until the final moment as he was the last to cross the line in a hotly-contested final ten-minute showdown, deposing Silverstone-based Force India's Adrian Sutil from top spot.
Behind another unusual front row, given Sutil's performance, Kimi Raikkonen again gave Ferrari something to cheer.
He will start third, with the 2007 world champion joined on the second row by his fellow Finn, McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen.
The Brackley-built Brawns, clearly back in form after their recent struggles, are on the third row, with Rubens Barrichello starting fifth and Jenson Button sixth, the Brazilian outqualifying the Briton for the third successive race.
On his debut for Force India, Tonio Liuzzi gave the team another historic moment as he will start seventh, the first time they have managed to get both cars into the top ten.
Fernando Alonso starts eighth for the Enstone-based Renault F1 team, followed by the Red Bulls of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber, their title hopes fading further.
BMW Sauber suffered a wretched Q2 as both Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica retired, with engine trouble.
Kubica will start 13th and Heidfeld 15th, with the man to split them being Giancarlo Fisichella on his debut for Ferrari.
The 36-year-old has clearly struggled to adapt to the car in the wake of his move from Force India nine days ago, notably crashing it this morning in final practice.
Toyota's Jarno Trulli will start from 11th, with Romain Grosjean a semi-respectable 12th for Renault bearing in mind his car has KERS on board this weekend.
The fears of the Williams team from Grove regarding the circuit were certainly realised as both Kazuki Nakajima and Nico Rosberg failed to make it out of Q1.
For Rosberg, who had qualified in the top 10 in 11 of the previous 12 races this season, the 24-year-old will start from his lowest position of the year in 18th, one place behind Nakajima.
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