Webber takes British GP pole position

Mark Webber took his second pole of the season on Saturday, beating his teammate Sebastian Vettel by a few hundredths of a second. It was all smiles in the RBR garages as their drivers sealed the front row despite the exhaust clampdown.

The Ferraris of Alonso and Massa will line up on the second row while McLaren’s Button will share the third row with Force India’s di Resta. Pastor Maldonado qualified 7th fastest ahead of Kobayashi, Rosberg and a clearly disappointed Lewis Hamilton.

The Briton used used tyres to set his time while his rivals were on new tyres.

The qualifying session was slightly overshadowed by the ongoing row about the exhaust clampdown. An urgency TWG meeting was called on by Charlie Whiting during lunch break, which resulted in Red Bull conceding to only use 10% throttle opening under braking this weekend while the Mercedes powered team were allowed to fuel part of their engines on the overrun. The FIA has been reported to have made some concessions too so it is likely a new compromise will be found for the next race.

How the session panned out :

Q1

All 24 cars were out on track within two minutes as the teams looked to add some more dry mileage under their belts.

The Ferraris set the early pace but faced a strong opposition from the Red Bulls. Alonso had an off-track moment as he was looking for improvement but managed to rejoin the track. In the meantime, Rubens Barrichello moved at the front but was soon edged out by Mark Webber.

Massa and Maldonado then took a turn at the front. Webber reclaimed the lead before rounding off his first run.

With six minutes left, it started to rain again at Silverstone. The session was effectively over in these conditions, meaning both Toro Rosso drivers were out of qualifying alongside Glock, Trulli, d’Ambrosio, Liuzzi and Ricciardo.

Heikki Kovalainen was the lucky one and made it through to Q2.

Q2

Tyre choice was particularly tricky as the track was damp. Rain had stopped when the track reopened but more showers were expected. It was not surprising then to see the 17 remaining cars quickly leaving their garages to bank in a time. Some had soft tyres on while others had inters on.

Sutil led after the first run but it was all but over. Alonso stormed at the front with Hamilton slotting in 2nd position…only for Vettel to split the pair. Webber and Massa subsequently lowered the benchmark

At the end of Q2, Massa was slightly quicker than Webber. Alonso, Button and Rosberg completed the top five with Vettel 6th fastest and Hamilton 8th.

Eliminated were Sutil, Pérez, Schumacher, Petrov, Barrichello, Heidfeld and Kovalainen.

Q3

Rain was still a threat at this stage.

The Red Bull drivers led the way out of the pits. Webber set the early benchmark ahead of his teammate Vettel and Ferrari’s Alonso. The top three was covered by just over a tenth of a second. Massa was fourth while the McLarens were down in 5th and 10th place.

Spots of rain reappeared as the drivers headed out for a second run. No one wanted to risk it at this point and none of the drivers went for it. It meant Webber took his second pole of the season ahead of his teammate.

Alonso and Massa will line up on the 2nd row.