Formula One: Robert Kubica today created Formula One history but it has come at a price. In starting tomorrow's Bahrain Grand Prix at the front of the grid, Kubica becomes the first Pole on pole in the sport's 59 years.
It is also the first time since the Chinese Grand Prix in October 2006 that neither Ferrari nor McLaren are at the head of affairs.
BMW Sauber star Kubica does have the drivers from those teams breathing down his neck as Felipe Massa is alongside him on the front row, with current championship leader Lewis Hamilton third.
Then behind the young Briton comes reigning world champion Kimi Raikkonen and another Finn in Heikki Kovalainen.
Naturally, neither Kubica nor the entire BMW Sauber team could contain their delight at finally taking the spotlight away from F1's big hitters.
Kubica, though, has had to suffer of late for his art, with the 23-year-old made to go on a diet before the season started. Standing six feet exactly, Kubica is already a beanpole, and he concedes dieting for a man of his slender frame was far from easy.
But he is reaping the rewards because even the few pounds he has lost can make a difference of tenths of seconds on a given lap.
"We decided for technical reasons to reduce my weight as much as possible, and I tried to do my best in February and March," said Kubica. "It was not easy, and now I weigh much less than the average for a guy who is one metre 85 centimetres.
"But it makes for a profit in my performance, and this has been a key for me being so strong at the start of the season."
Kubica narrowly missed out on pole in the season-opening race in Australia before finishing a career-high second a fortnight ago in Malaysia. For the mild-mannered Kubica, he can appreciate there is a growing sense of anticipation within his homeland as his hero status grows.
"In Poland, after my second place in Malaysia there have been high expectations," remarked Kubica. "All I can say is that we all expected to be strong, despite the problems we had at the beginning of winter testing.
"The guys worked hard, which is an example of never giving up, of pushing as hard as possible, even if there are problems.
"We managed to be ready in time for Australia with nearly the full potential of the car. But there is still work to do, and we will do our best to improve the car even more."
As in Melbourne, Kubica thought he was going to be denied again as the seconds counted down in the closing stages of the third qualifying period.
"After missing out on the chance in Australia, I am happy I've not had to wait too long for this," smiled Kubica. Q1 and Q2 were so so, and then in Q3 the first run was good, but I made a mistake in the last corner.
"On my second run I flat spotted a tyre through turn nine. There was quite a lot of vibration on the tyre and the car was pulling to one side. I was not expecting to be on pole after this mistake, but of course I'm happy."
Massa, under pressure after his point-less performances in the opening two races, had previously dominated practice and again appeared the man to beat after Q1 and Q2.
But despite the fact he starts from second, he insisted he was not too despondent, although his facial expression said otherwise.
"In a way I'm happy with second," asserted Massa. "In Q3, after what we did in Q2, I knew it was really possible to be at the front.
"I was a little bit unlucky with traffic in Q3, but it's still good to start from the front. I know tomorrow we can be strong."
Like Massa, Hamilton was satisfied with his third, in particular as he was running in the spare chassis after his accident in practice yesterday that destroyed his original car.
"Going into qualifying I was happy with the balance I had and I knew I would at least be able to challenge for the front row," remarked the 23-year-old.
"We're third, and I'm very happy with that. If it had been the perfect lap we could have had pole, but we're on a good strategy and I think tomorrow will be quite interesting."
Jenson Button starts a superb ninth in his Honda, but Red Bull's David Coulthard is a miserable 17th on the grid, with Anthony Davidson in his Super Aguri an unsurprising 21st.