Patronise F1

Yes, despite what the formbook may have said, Ferrari were slow all through each session, save a late pole bid from a possibly light Kimi Raikkonen, Lewis Hamilton was on course for pole position, but threw it all away with a lurid late slide through the gravel, Robert Kubica had a similar issue which left him sitting out the rest of the final session, and so it was left to Heikki Kovalainen to grab his maiden F1 pole position after a season of disappointments so far.

More remarkable than that was Mark Webber's lap to stick his Red Bull alongside Heikki on the front row. He may have benefitted from Hamilton's mistake, BMW's woes and Ferrari's odd torpidity, but nevertheless it was a sensational lap, which actually put him on pole until Heikki finally hooked up a lap in the face of the blustery winds sweeping the circuit and ruined a possible maiden pole for the Aussie. Not a maiden front row though, as all good Webber historians will tell you, he has been there three time before (Malaysia 2004, Spain 2005 and Monaco 2006 if you're interested).

More remarkable than THAT was the way that ITV's commentators seemed to ignore Webber completely. There have been moans from the Aussie crowds before that James Allen and Martin Brundle never mention the boy, but it is usually easy to dismiss that as simply because he's usually uninterestingly mired in the midfield. But here, aside from a few brief tips of the hat, the attention was all over Kovalainen, which seemed a little unfair.

Behind the surprising front row, there were plenty of other drivers looking out of position. Kimi Raikkonen ended the day in third place, one place ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who managed a better lap after his grassy moment. Fifth was a welcome return to form for Ickle Heidfeld in the BMW, who ended a few hundreths behind Hamilton, and clear of Fernando Alonso and Nelson Piquet Jr in the closely-matched pair of Renaults.

Sebastian Vettel was 8th, while 9th and 10th were championship contenders Felipe Massa and Robert Kubica, the latter having an off on his first run in Q3 and seeming to damage the car, or at least delay him in the pits for long enough as to miss the window for a second flyer, while Massa just seemed to not bother with a final run, even though his time was looking tardy. Both will have a lot of work to do tomorrow.

Earlier on in qualifying, Q2 had seen David Coulthard's final British race go the same way as much of the rest of the season, with elimination in the second session (albeit by a few hundreths). With the sister car on the front row, perhaps this serves as a telling statement that he was right to call it a day. Also having their afternoons ended in Q2 were the Toyotas, looking like they've lost some of their Magny-Cours pace around Silverstone, and now looking like losing some ground to Red Bull in the fight for 4th in the constructors, as well as Sebastien Bourdais and Kazuki Nakajima.

Bourdais found his way into Q2 after bothering to set a decent time on a dry track at the end of Q1 as spots of rain fell, while others either left it too late, spun out trying to do so (we're looking at you, Fisichella) or simply didn't bother. Odd decisions for some drivers, but a fruitful one for the Frenchman in the Toro Rosso.

Q1 saw the only spots of rain for a session that had been predicted to be "up to 100% certain" of rain (so I guess they were technically right), and also saw the pair of recalcitrant Hondas, the pair of back row-loving Force Indias and Nico Rosberg's Williams, which looked dreadful all weekend (the car, not the driver) and ended parked in the pits, with Rosberg's list of complaints with the machine running so long as to preclude any more running. Another dreadful weekend for the German looks in prospect.

But despite that, the race promises to be a cracker. Rain is again forecast (though may not turn up), but either way the chance of some moisture has doubtless led the teams to cover their backs on strategy, which may go some way to explaining to odd-looking front few rows.

Kovalainen has his first pole, and he now starts the race tomorrow as the favourite to turn that into his first win. But it looks set to not be as straightforward as that.

* - Eliminated in second session
** - Eliminated in first session