Vettel takes Silverstone pole

F1 Grand Prix, GP Great-Britain, Silverstone Circuit

Red Bull's updates have clearly paid off and have enabled Vettel to put his RB5 on pole, ahead of Rubens Barrichello's Brawn GP car. Mark Webber is third. Jarno Trulli is 4th while Nakajima topped Rosberg for the first time this year, making it to 5th place.

The Silverstone qualifying takes place under a typical British weather, cloudy and fairly chilly with track temperatures at only 26°C.

The slower cars of free practice, Kubica and Fisichella are the first to take the track with the soft tyre. This compound proves faster today than the hard one as it is a little too cold for the hard tyres to work quickly and efficiently. On Friday it was the other way around.

Note that McLaren have opted against KERS here, making Ferrari the only team to use the regenerative system here.

Over halfway through the session, all drivers have set a time with Webber fastest, ahead of Vettel, Trulli, Alonso and Rosberg. At this time, both Ferraris and both McLarens are in trouble and will have to improve to have a chance to make it into Q2.

3 minutes from the end, Raikkonen puts in the 6th fastest time while Massa follows with a 9th position. Kovalainen only manages to improve to 15th place.

Then, with only 24 seconds on the clock, the session is red flagged after a heavy crash by Adrian Sutil. It appears that something broke on his car as just when he turned in the car appeared to pick up more speed, rather than brake.

For the others, too little time remains to set a quick lap. Eliminated are therefore Fisichella, Bourdais, Sutil, Hamilton and Buemi. Unexpectedly however, Buemi still decided to complete another lap, out of the pits and back in at in the last seconds.

When Q2 is go, Sebastian Vettel is the first man out, although not with a really good lap. Mark Webber on the other hand is fastest after 6 minutes, ahead of Trulli, Alonso and Rosberg.

The Brawn GP cars are comparatively slow with Barrichello currently only 6th while Button is in a risky 11th position. There is no other option but to improve.

A single minute from the end of the session, Button puts himself in 7th place but might still drop out if others can improve just slightly. Massa is also in difficulty and unable to improve, missing out on an improvement in the third sector of his final lap.

At the last moment, Vettel improved to be quickest which at the same time eliminates Massa, Kubica, Kovalainen, Piquet and Heidfeld.

Q3 promises to be a tense battle with especially Button seemingly much better on the pace with more a heavier car. Most cars decide to run two quick laps on a single set of option tyres, and after the first series Webber is leader Vettel, ahead of Barrichello, Rosberg and Button.

In his second attempt, Barrichello improves for first, only to be topped by Vettel 10 seconds later. Button follows but only manages 5th. Webber's flying lap was slightly hampered by Raikkonen who was rolling to the pits. He lost out considerably and ends up in 3rd place.