• British Grand Prix - Qualifying

Vettel takes pole for dominant Red Bull at Silverstone

ESPNF1 Staff
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Sebastian Vettel beat Mark Webber to pole position © Getty Images
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Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber locked out the front row of the grid for the British Grand Prix, after a dominant display in qualifying by Red Bull.

The RB6 was in league of its own around the high-speed Silvertsone circuit, with Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton the only other two drivers capable of getting within a second of Vettel. The Red Bull duo scrapped for pole position in Q3, but Webber wasn't able to match his team-mate in the new middle sector and will have to challenge him off the start line tomorrow if he wants to stand a chance of taking victory under normal conditions.

Behind Hamilton in fourth, Nico Rosberg restored some pride for the struggling Mercedes team, ahead of Robert Kubica's Renault and Felipe Massa's Ferrari. Rubens Barrichello and Pedro de la Rosa impressed for their respective teams in eighth and ninth and Michael Schumacher rounded out the top ten in the second Mercedes.

It was a disastrous session for Jenson Button, who qualified 14th and complained of a lack of rear-end grip. He said "something felt very wrong" and admitted that he had to take downforce away from the front wing ahead of the session just to balance the car in the corners.

Button is joined outside the top ten by the two Force Indias of Adrian Sutil and Tonio Liuzzi. Sutil had shown promise in Q1 but couldn't hook up a lap when it mattered, while Liuzzi came perilously close to dropping out in the first session. Sutil will start 11th ahead of Kamui Kobayashi and Nico Hulkenberg, with Vitaly Petrov and Sebastien Buemi in 15th and 16th behind Button. Liuzzi was given a five-place grid penalty for blocking Hulkneberg and will now start 20th in the midst of the slower cars.

Jaime Alguersuari joined the bottom six cars at the back of the grid after failing to make the grade for Q2. Lotus' Heikki Kovalainen leads the battle of the new teams, ahead of Timo Glock in the Virgin. Sakon Yamamoto stepped up his game slightly for qualifying to set a lap within half a second of Karun Chandhok, after being a full second adrift in the practice sessions.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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