Lewis Hamilton wowed the British fans by becoming the first British driver in 11 years to claim pole position for his home grand prix.
The McLaren rookie snatched pole position for Sunday's race by 0.102s from Kimi Raikkonen, who was the fastest driver for much of the weekend.
His achievement came as a surprise to many in the paddock, including his father Anthony, as the World Championship leader had looked to be slower than his team-mate, Fernando Alonso, in the build-up to the third and final qualifying segment.
However, the 22-year-old Brit made it count when it mattered most, clocking a 1:19.997 in his final qualifying run. Alonso, who had hoped to steal Hamilton's thunder, had to settle for third place ahead of Felipe Massa.
Qualifying 1
The sky was full of steepling clouds, but the sun shone bright on a packed Silverstone circuit. The track temperature was 43C and the ambient 21C as the two Spykers took to the track. A strong tail wind down the Hangar Straight made the right-hand turn into Stowe particularly difficult.
Cristijan Albers set the first time at 1:23.160 surprisingly quicker than the much-fancied Adrian Sutil. The Renaults then reduced it to a more representative time - 1:21.297 for Kovalainen and 1:21.054 for Giancarlo Fisichella. Fisichella went on for a second quick lap and edged it down to 1:20.967.
Lewis Hamilton went out earliest of the quartet of drivers from McLaren/Ferrari likely to contest P1. On hard tyres he set a 1:19.885. Alonso, Massa, Raikkonen and BMW's Nick Heidfeld were all out late and all required just three laps to secure their place in the next session.
Raikkonen went P2 and then Alonso - on the softer, white-striped tyes - smashed P1 with a 1:19.330.
With three minutes left the danger positions were:
14. Liuzzi
15. Rosberg
16. Ralf Schumacher
17. Davidson
18. Barrichello
19. Sutil
20. Button
21. Sato
22. Albers
The usually lacklustre Alex Wurz was P8 in his Williams, while the usually meteoric Nico Rosberg suffered a misfire in his and would gradually slide down the order.
Super Aguri's Ant Davidson was one of the first to set a hot lap while most of the other cars were on an outlap and faced the daunting task of carving through the field and set a time. Davidson had been in the top 10 in practice, but as usual, when it really counted, the performance disappeared. He lost the lap between Priory and Brooklands and while trying to give his tyres some temperature to get another lap in, spun off tamely into the gravel at Luffied.
This brought out double waved yellows and while marshals recovered the car drivers couldn't score personal bests through the final sector. Which ironically affected Super Aguri driver Takuma Sato who didn't improve. Button was radioed by his engineers about the situation at Luffield through two critical corners and lost focus (and pace) and couldn't improve enough, Barrichello managed to grab P16 and Ralf moved well clear - into P6. And that was that.
Out went:
17. Rosberg
18. Button
19. Davidson
20. Sutil
21. Sato
22. Albers
Qualifying 2
Liuzzi started off with a 1:20.947 which Trulli lowered to 1:20.854 and then Ralf Schumacher took down to 1:20.354.
Kimi Raikkonen showed his intent with an early 1:19.252 - interestingly Lewis Hamilton couldn't match it and had to be content with P2 and a 1:19.400 on the softer tyre.
However Mclaren team-mate Fernando Alonso, using the harder, (slower) tyre snatched pole with a 1:19.152. Massa put in a 1:19.421 to take P4 and all these drivers would not have to take to the circuit again.
What was surprising was that the 5th and 6th placed BMW drivers also didn't go out for a second run. Robert Kubica had expended 8 laps in Q1 but Heidfeld only 3.
With three minutes left, the times at risk were:
7. Fisichella
8. Ralf Schumacher
9. Kovalainen
10. Webber
11. Speed
12. Barrichello
13. Liuzzi
14. Trulli
15. Coulthard
16. Wurz
Wurz jumped to P8, Fisichella made his position very safe with a P5, Kovalainen improved, Trulli jumped to P8 and with a real return to form Ralf Schumacher put in a magnificent time good enough for P5, a real result for the under-pressure Toyota driver.
Though Webber and Coulthard went quicker, they couldn't go quick enough. An error in Mark's final sector lost him two-tenths and the BMW team breathed easier. Because Heidfeld ended up in P10 with a 1:20.178, while Webber fell just short with a 1:20.235. There would have been red faces all round if Heidfeld had been eliminated when clearly he could have gone quicker.
So out went:
11. Webber
12. Coulthard
13. Wurz
14. Barrichello
15. Speed
16. Liuzzi
Qualifying 3
Since Alonso versus Schumacher in 2006, one of the most interesting parts of qualifying has been the little duels and spats we have at the end of the pitlane and on the outlap of Q3.
Silverstone was no different but this time round it was an intra-Mclaren battle. Hamilton got to the end of the pitlane first and instead of queueing up behind Alonso stuck his car slightly to the right, almost waiting for a drag start when the lights changed.
When red changed to green, that's what he did, tried to overtake Hamilton going into the tight pitlane turn on the inside of Copse (it's a but nadgy round there and Gerhard Berger once bent a Ferrari there all by himself) . Had he misjudged it and hit his fellow McLaren driver it would have been one of the single most mullet-headed moments in F1.
As it is he ducked behind and then tried to overtake Hamilton all the way round their opening tour. He couldn't and we settled in to routine fuel burning, enlivened by Nick Heidfeld trying to get past a sluggish Kimi Raikkonen - slowing to make himself some space - around the outside of Luffield.
Nick Heidfeld was first in for new tyres for his hot lap, but it was Fernando Alonso who started picking up purple (fastest) sector times on the official timing screens. He set the target pole time of 1:20.410 and was immediately followed over the line by Massa with a 1:20.482 for P2. Kimi Raikkonen had looked the fastest of the Ferrari drivers for most of the weekend so it was a surprise when he could only take P3 and Lewis Hamilton just about hung onto them with a 1:20.593. The Brit was looking unusually ragged.
After the first runs the order was:
1. Alonso
2. Massa
3. Raikkonen
4. Hamilton
5. Kubica
6. Fisichella
7. Kovalainen
8. Schumacher
9. Heidfeld
10. Trulli
The cars went for their final runs in the same order, so it was Alonso out on track first. The Spaniard was flying as he managed to reduce his own pole time to 1:20.147, Massa was right behind him but stayed P2 with a 1:20.265.
Kimi Raikkonen was flying, putting in the fastest first and second sectors. Going into the slow corners at the end of his lap he had a quarter of a second advantage over Alonso, but ran wide at Woodcote and his rear wheels bit into dirt and not the concrete run-off. Despite this he crossed the line in P1 with a 1:20.090.
It meant that Hamilton would have to find half a second from his previous pole shot.
Critically, Hamilton had his fastest Sector 1 of Qualifying. While Alonso had completed it in 25.6 and the two Ferraris in 25.4, Hamilton managed to do it in 25.5. His middle sector was two-tenths quicker than the Ferraris and as he swept across the line, the P1 figure came on screen. Cue wild scenes from the very large crowd and ecstasy in the McLaren garage.
It had been an immense effort. Hamilton had looked as though he was heading for a P3 or P4 slot and a supporting role to Fernando Alonso and he had snatched P1 at the very last moment. "Sweet".
Whether or not Raikkonen would have taken pole had he not put two wheels on the dirt is hard to say, but the Finn certainly believed it.
Behind them Kubica was 5th, not that far away from Felipe Massa, but significantly in front of team-mate Heidfeld to suspect that they had very different fuel loads.
Though Hamilton has won the PR battle for Saturday, any one of the first four drivers could win the race on Sunday. Hamilton has already shown from his Q3 resistance of Alonso, that he is not going to be brushed aside lightly.
FH
Times
01 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:19.997
02 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:20.099
03 F. Alonso McLaren 1:20.147
04 F. Massa Ferrari 1:20.265
05 R. Kubica BMW 1:20.401
06 R. Schumacher Toyota 1:20.516
07 H. Kovalainen Renault 1:20.721
08 G. Fisichella Renault 1:20.775
09 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:20.894
10 J. Trulli Toyota 1:21.240
11 M. Webber Red Bull 1:20.235
12 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:20.329
13 A. Wurz Williams 1:20.350
14 R. Barrichello Honda 1:20.364
15 S. Speed Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:20.515
16 V. Liuzzi Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:20.823
17 N. Rosberg Williams 1:21.219
18 J. Button Honda 1:21.335
19 A. Davidson Super Aguri 1:21.448
20 A. Sutil Spyker F1 1:22.019
21 T. Sato Super Aguri 1:22.045
22 C. Albers Spyker F1 1:22.589
