Silverstone, 7 July

While there are accusations that some of the races this season have been not so exciting with little overtaking, the same criticism can certainly not be levelled at the Saturday afternoon qualifying show. Once again, for the final Q3 section the crowd at Silverstone circuit was treated to a fantastic display of Formula 1 cars being driven on their limit. And also once again, there were really only two teams in the fight for the front of the grid - McLaren-Mercedes and Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro. In the end it was the fairytale result for the most talked about driver of the year as championship leader Lewis Hamilton took pole position at his first attempt at his home grand prix. Naturally enough, the partisan crowd gave him an emotional standing ovation. Adding to the excitement was the fact that the English driver took pole away from Kimi Raikkonen only in the last seconds of the session. The Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro driver therefore starts on the outside of the front row, with the second F2007 of Felipe Massa starting right behind him in fourth place, as the Brazilian was outpaced by around one tenth of a second by third place Fernando Alonso in the second McLaren-Mercedes.

The third row features the BMW-Sauber of Robert Kubica in fifth spot and Ralf Schumacher's Toyota sixth. After suffering back pain and missing yesterday's second free practice session, Jenson Button was back in the cockpit today, qualifying his Honda in eighteenth spot.
In recent races, it seemed that whoever took pole went on to win the race, but in France, Raikkonen reversed that trend, securing a Ferrari win from third place on the grid. He and Felipe will be hoping for the best possible start to boost their chances tomorrow afternoon and, as usual, it will not be until the first stint of the British Grand Prix comes to an end with the first run of pit stops that we will get a clear picture of everyone's fuel load strategy and how this might affect the final outcome of the ninth round of the season.