Massa takes his first ever pole, Button his first ever win. Robert Kubica becomes the first Polish driver to contest a round of the Formula One World Championship and Sebastian Vettel become the youngest driver to participate in a Grand Prix weekend.

However, here's another little bit of history one should consider. Last Friday, August 25, marked the fifteenth anniversary of the first ever F1 race contested by a certain F1 driver. In those fifteen years, Michael Schumacher, for it is he, has won the title seven times, finished runner-up twice, and third three times.

Whether he stay on for another season, whether he makes it eight titles, one should sit down and ponder those numbers for a little while.

Today, the German will have the opportunity to move a little closer to that eight title, however, first he has to tame a circuit at which, in 2005, he delivered one of his worst ever performance.

For much of the weekend, Michael has appeared to put the nightmare of Istanbul 2005 behind him, however, there were an umber of mistakes in qualifying, particularly at Turn 1.

However, with Felipe Massa starting from pole, therefore giving Ross Brawn the opportunity to weave some of his strategic magic, one can be sure that Schumacher is in with a real chance of delighting his Turkish fans.

Despite the absence of their controversial mass dampers, the Renaults appear to be running well, with Alonso and Fisichella starting from the second row. However, as ever, it all depends what sort of strategy everyone is running.

In addition to fuel its going to be worth watch the tyre situation, with Bridgestone and Michelin claiming to be "confident".

Unlike Hungary, and no disrespect to Jenson, it is unlikely that we're going to witness a freak result today, not unless Father Neil Horan is up to his old tricks. That said, don't be too quick in writing off McLaren, while BMW looks set to add to its points tally.

If Schumacher can repeat the form he showed for much of the weekend, this afternoon could be a stroll in the (Istanbul Speed) Park, and it's unlikely we're going to see anything like the action we witnessed in this morning's GP2 race. However, Renault and Alonso are still smarting from the mass damper ban, and will be keen to prove a point.

Herman Tilke has, for once, produced a great track, we can only hope the Formula One can do it justice. We know that the circuit has numerous spots where overtaking is possible - witness this morning's GP2 race - all that remains is for Formula One to rediscover how its done.

With just a couple of minutes before the cars head off on the warm-up lap, the air temperature is 36 degrees C, and the track temperature is 52 degrees. It is hot, extremely hot, and sunny.

Nobody is starting from the pitlane, however, following their engine change penalties, Ralf Schumacher and Christijan Albers are starting fifteenth and twenty-second.