Heikki Kovalainen: in pole position for tomorrow’s race at Silverstone. Photograph: Martin Rickett/PA

McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen claimed his first formula one pole position in a blustery qualifying for the British grand prix, setting a time half a second quicker than his closest rival.

The Finnish driver put in a sensational lap of 1min 21.049secs at the end of the session and will line up alongside Mark Webber. It is the first time a Red Bull Racing car will start a grand prix from the front row of the grid.

“I’ve spent many years of my life [living] around here so it’s great to make my first pole here,” said Kovalainen. “In the last part of qualifying there were quite difficult conditions, the wind picked up quite a lot and in my first run I was all over the place.”

Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen could only manage third, while home favourite Lewis Hamilton survived a trip through the gravel at Priory and went on to take fourth place, having been warned by his engineer over the radio not to overdrive.

“It was oversteer,” said Hamilton of the off. “The lap was going quite well but under braking the back end stepped out under entry to the corner, which put me into the gravel. The last lap I felt was good but I think I did too hard an out lap and used up my tyres. But the fuel load and everything [for tomorrow] is cool and the car felt good.”

The session was a disaster for drivers’ championship leader Felipe Massa, who had a wheel-nut problem and could only manage ninth – behind Sebastian Vettel from tiny Italian team Toro Rosso. BMW’s Robert Kubica, who is also battling for the drivers’ title, failed to complete a flying lap in the final session and will start tomorrow’s race from 10th position.

Two-times British grand prix winner David Coulthard, who has announced he will retire at the end of the season, narrowly failed to make it through to the top 10 and will start 11th, while Jenson Button went out in the first session with the 17th-fastest time.

About this articleCloseThis article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Saturday July 05 2008. It was last updated at 14:44 on July 05 2008.

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