Heikki Kovalainen lived up to his practice pace by storming to his maiden
Formula 1 pole position for this weekend's British Grand Prix at
Silverstone – leaving fans' favourite
Lewis Hamilton thoroughly in the shade on a slightly topsy-turvy grid.
The Finn will be joined on the front row by
Mark Webber's
Red Bull Racing machine – the Aussie having briefly held pole – and both are former winners around the Northants circuit in the junior formulae. With Ferrari seemingly off the pace and rain forecast for Sunday, the race could be a very interesting prospect indeed…
With rain threatening and a blustery wind battering the Northants circuit, many of the drivers were quick to take to the track in Q1, with
Ferrari's world championship leader
Felipe Massa the last to leave the pit-lane.
Kovalainen set the initial pace, again seeming to hold a slight advantage over McLaren-Mercedes team-mate Hamilton this weekend, before a confident
Fernando Alonso seemed to suggest his FP3 form was no fluke by grabbing the top time as the first man to dip below the 1m21s barrier.
To the delight of the home crowds, however, Hamilton soon lopped a further seven tenths of a second off his former team-mate and world championship rival's time, with defending world champion
Kimi Raikkonen slotting into second place for Ferrari before compatriot Kovalainen went three tenths faster again to break the 1m20s barrier as the times continued to tumble.
Sebastian Vettel then leapt up the order into third spot – behind only the two McLarens of Kovalainen and Hamilton – but with talk of rain,
Nick Heidfeld skated briefly off the circuit and
David Coulthard, in his final British Grand Prix this weekend, found himself playing with fire as he waited in the Red Bull garage, ultimately taking to the track to narrowly hoist himself up to P13 with five-and-a-half minutes to go.
