| 12:50:41
| Welcome to F1-Live.com and live coverage of qualifying for the British Grand Prix. It is currently sunny, blustery and dry. Dark clouds remain on the horizon, but so far a dry afternoon. |
| 12:52:38
| A rain shower ahead of practice this morning saw the 20 drivers lapping on a wet circuit until the final minutes of the session when the circuit dried out. The lap times tumbled and Fernando Alonso ended the session at the head of the timesheets with a best lap of 1:20.740s. Felipe Massa’s Friday morning time of 1:19.575s remains the fastest of the weekend. |
| 12:54:34
| The times in the one hour of morning practice mean little as some will have been lapping with a light fuel load and some on a heavier fuel load. Still, Alonso was fastest from Mark Webber in the Red Bull Renault and Heikki Kovalainen in the McLaren Mercedes. |
| 12:56:39
| Sebastian Vettel was fourth fastest in his Toro Rosso Ferrari ahead of Lewis Hamilton in the second McLaren. Hamilton was blindingly fast in the first sector of the circuit and topped the speed traps with ease, but would lose out a great deal in the twisty final sector of the lap. Clearly he opted for a low-downforce setup on his MP4-23. |
| 12:58:42
| As ever, qualifying is split into three sessions with the slowest five eliminated after Q1 and Q2 leaving the final ten to take race fuel on board and go for the pole position in Q3. |
| 13:00:06
| Partly blue skies and the wind has really picked up. Q1 is now underway, this is a 20 minute session. |
| 13:00:39
| Nakajima and Vettel straight out. |
| 13:01:15
| Hamilton, Rosberg, Glock, Kovalainen and others heading out. They want a banker lap in case it rains. |
| 13:02:00
| All on track but Massa. It is clouding over. |
| 13:02:10
| Now all 20 runners on track. |
| 13:03:15
| Hamilton locks up into Club but continues. |
| 13:03:33
| Vettel sets the initial pace from Rosberg and Nakajima. |
| 13:03:57
| Kovalainen moves fastest now from Hamilton. |
| 13:04:34
| Webber is third fastest at the moment but the times are changing fast. |
| 13:05:14
| Nakajima and Rosberg pit from the lower midfield. |
| 13:05:32
| Hamilton now fastest from Webber and Alonso. |
| 13:06:39
| Hamilton was on a better lap but pitted as Massa moves second ahead of Webber and Alonso. |
| 13:07:09
| A quick stop for Kovalainen and he is back out for a second stint. |
| 13:07:39
| Raikkonen moves second as he chases Kovalainen on the circuit. |
| 13:08:13
| Raikkonen backs off as he gets close to the back of Kovalainen. |
| 13:09:04
| Kovalainen moves fastest for McLaren Mercedes ahead of Hamilton who is in the pits. |
| 13:09:52
| Bourdais is currently slowest half way through the session. As it stands, Bourdais, Sutil, Fisichella, Barrichello and Button are the slowest five. |
| 13:10:04
| Vettel moves third fastest. |
| 13:10:35
| On the soft tyre Rosberg is just 14th. |
| 13:11:25
| Bourdais is on the soft tyre and looking for a clean lap. |
| 13:11:39
| The front runners are in the pits. |
| 13:11:59
| Rosberg pits. He is struggling again with Williams. |
| 13:12:31
| Bourdais moves 11th and that demotes Coulthard into the bottom five. |
| 13:13:12
| Glock moves into the top six and should be safe. |
| 13:13:34
| Now Kubica moves fifth as Heidfeld runs across the grass. |
| 13:14:13
| All change as Raikkonen is now fourth ahead of Kubica, Massa and Piquet. Coulthard moves 13th. |
| 13:14:20
| Rain is falling! |
| 13:15:09
| Rain is falling with five minutes remaining. The circuit is dry for th moment. |
| 13:15:21
| They are all pitting. |
| 13:15:45
| It remains to be seen if this is just a short sharp shower and will pass or not. |
| 13:16:26
| No one on the circuit. As it stands Fisichella, Sutil, Button, Rosberg and Barrichello will be eliminated. |
| 13:17:21
| It looks set to stay wet by the look of things. No one on track. |
| 13:17:47
| Some parts of the circuit remain in sunshine. |
| 13:18:25
| Bourdais and Fisichella head out. |
| 13:18:47
| Others now heading out with hardly any time remaining. |
| 13:19:30
| We have Bourdais, Fisichella, Sutil, Button, Barrichello on track. The circuit seems dry still. |
| 13:20:04
| The chequered flag is out. |
| 13:20:38
| The rain has not been effected by the shower it seems. Fisichella and Bourdais pushing hard. |
| 13:21:12
| Bourdais moves sixth and shows that the likes of Rosberg have blown it. |
| 13:21:35
| A gain for Button but just 17th. |
| 13:22:10
| A wild ride for Fisichella as he spins in the complex and he pits. |
| 13:22:43
| So the session is over. Fisichella, Sutil, Rosberg. Button and Barrichello are eliminated in Q1. |
| 13:23:42
| Roserg's season is really in a slump since Monaco. As Bourdais proved, the rain shower did bot effect the circuit and yet Rosberg got out of the car and walked away with time left to qualify. |
| 13:23:55
| A short pause now ahead of Q2. |
| 13:27:19
| Q2 is now underway, this is a 15 minute session. |
| 13:28:19
| The session is underway and no one on track as yet. |
| 13:30:25
| Alonso heads out in his Renault. |
| 13:31:02
| Raikkonen, Glock and Trulli now heading out. |
| 13:31:44
| Others now heading out with ten minutes remaining. The sun is out and no sign of that brief rain shower. |
| 13:32:09
| Just Kubica and Heidfeld in the pits. |
| 13:33:01
| Alonso sets the initial pace on a low 1:20. |
| 13:33:34
| Raikkonen now fastest from Alonso and Glock. |
| 13:34:38
| The first laps are complete and Hamilton is now fastest from Kovalainen, Raikkonen, Massa and Alonso. |
| 13:34:51
| Webber moves third fastest. |
| 13:35:33
| Kubica and Heidfeld head out just as the early runners start to return to the pits. |
| 13:36:19
| Nakajima is currently the slowest of those to set a lap time. |
| 13:36:34
| Kubica starts his first timed lap. |
| 13:37:48
| Kubica is on a good lap at the moment. Heidfeld is also on his first lap. |
| 13:38:15
| Kubica moves third fastest and Heidfeld fourth. |
| 13:38:30
| We have yet to see the expected pace of Ferrari. |
| 13:38:58
| Just over three minutes remain and the field will be back out for a second run shortly. |
| 13:40:00
| Vettel, ninth, leads the field back out for one more run. The fastest few will opt not to run again content with the times they have set. |
| 13:40:38
| Vettel is on the soft tyre. It is all but certain that they will all be on the soft tyre. |
| 13:40:49
| All on track but the top four. |
| 13:41:38
| Crunch time for Nakajima, Trulli, Coulthard, Glock and Bourdais. |
| 13:42:01
| The chequered flag is out. |
| 13:42:14
| Vettel moves seventh. |
| 13:42:26
| Massa moves seventh. |
| 13:42:43
| Nakajima moves up one position to 14th. |
| 13:42:57
| Alonso moves sixth. Piquet tenth. |
| 13:43:04
| Webber moves third. |
| 13:43:12
| Raikkonen moves sixth. |
| 13:43:31
| Trulli moves up ahead of Nakajima and back into 14th. |
| 13:44:02
| The order is set. Nakajima, Trulli, Bourdais, Glock and Coulthard eliminated. |
| 13:44:52
| Vettel makes the top ten for Toro Rosso and Piquet makes it two Renaults in the final ten. |
| 13:45:37
| Ferrari surprisingly just sixth with Raikkonen and eighth with Massa. Hamilton was fastest in that session. A pause now ahead of Q3. |
| 13:50:08
| Q3 is now underway and this is just a ten minute session. The cars now have race fuel on board. |
| 13:51:30
| There is no one rushing out as yet. |
| 13:52:30
| Raikkonen heads out. |
| 13:53:10
| Kubica, Hamilton, Piquet, Webber and Alonso head out. |
| 13:53:46
| Now all but Vettel and Massa on track. They will all do an out lap, a hot lap and an in lap. And then repeat the process. |
| 13:54:18
| Raikkonen is on his qualifying lap and has understeer through Becketts. |
| 13:54:50
| Now oversteer through Club for Raikkonen. The car looks a real handful. |
| 13:55:26
| Raikkonen records a mid 1:22 lap and is not fast. |
| 13:56:24
| Hamilton runs off track in the complex and starts arnother lap. |
| 13:56:44
| Kovalainen sets the initial pace from Raikkonen and Alonso. |
| 13:57:03
| Kubica made a mistake on his lap and pitted. |
| 13:57:33
| Vettel heads out for the first time. Just on run for him. |
| 13:57:44
| They are all pitting for a final set of tyres. |
| 13:58:06
| Hamilton pitted and did not improve. He is eighth at the moment. |
| 13:58:43
| Kovalainen fastest from Raikkonen, Alonso, Heidfeld, Massa, Webber, Piquet, Hamilton, Kubica and Vettel. |
| 13:59:05
| Raikkonen is on his final lap now. |
| 13:59:31
| Kubica has not gone back out so will start ninth or tenth. |
| 13:59:50
| Raikkonen on a good lap.... |
| 14:00:00
| Hamilton also on a hot lap... |
| 14:00:03
| The chequered flag is out. |
| 14:00:14
| Raikkonen moves fastest. |
| 14:00:31
| Kovalainen and Hamilton both on fast laps. |
| 14:00:39
| Massa pits and is P6. |
| 14:00:53
| Hamilton moves second fastest. |
| 14:01:01
| Webber goes fastest! |
| 14:01:23
| Kovalainen takes pole position for the British Grand Prix. |
| 14:02:21
| So a rather different look to qualifying with Kovalainen on pole position from Webber, Raikkonen, Heidfeld, Alonso, Piquet, Vettel, Massa and Kubica. |
