Qualifying Report - Vettel by three-tenths

Sebastian Vettel took pole position for the British Grand Prix, with a best lap that was three-tenths clear of the Brawn of Rubens Barrichello. The Red Bull Racing team seemed to have made a big step forward with a new aerodynamics package and it seemed that the Milton Keynes team has now moved ahead of Brawn. Whether that speed will be reflected in the race remains to be seen.

Barrichello said he expected to be third quickest but was able to qualify second after Mark Webber lost time on his final run with Kimi Raikkonen getting in the way on Hangar Straight. The Australian had seemed to be a strong challenger for pole, but his ambition was thwarted. The fourth fastest car was the Toyota of Jarno Trulli, ahead of the Williams of Kazuki Nakajima, Jenson Button's Brawn was a surprisingly slow sixth with the team not having an easy time getting heat into the tyres. Nico Rosberg was seventh in his Williams ahead of Timo Glock's Toyota, Raikkonen's Ferrari and the Renault of Fernando Alonso.

The Q2 session saw Felipe Massa missing out on the top 10 but beating Robert Kubica, Heikki Kovalainen, Nelson Piquet and Nick Heidfeld.

Q1 ended in dramatic fashion as Adrian Sutil had a major shunt at Abbey. The German hit the barriers with the rear of the car, which then turned the front into the wall as well and the car came to rest with a considerable amount of wreckage strewn around. The session was red-flagged. This meant that Lewis Hamilton failed to get out of Q1, a big disappointment for the World Champion. Also out went Fisichella, Bourdais and Buemi.

Sutil seemed a little disoriented at first but was soon out of the car and after a visit to the medical centre was cleared to race on Sunday.