Kovalainen secures maiden pole position

(CNN) -- Heikki Kovalainen secured the first pole position of his Formula One career to put McLaren teammate and home favorite Lewis Hamilton in the shade at the British Grand Prix.

The Finn blitzed the Silverstone circuit in qualifying, recording a time of 1:21.049 to finish half a second quicker than Red Bull's Australian driver Mark Webber.

Kimi Raikkonen will start third in his Ferrari, with Hamilton next up following one of the most dramatic qualifying shoot-outs of the season.

BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld will start fifth just ahead of former world champion Fernando Alonso in his Renault.

Nelson Piquet steered the other Renault to seventh on the grid while Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari's world championship leader Felipe Massa will start eighth and ninth respectively.

Robert Kubica is in danger of sliding down the world championship standings after a technical fault restricted him to tenth on the grid.

The Pole led the championship after winning in his BMW Sauber in Canada a month ago but slipped to second place after a disappointing race in France.

He needed a strong performance at Silverstone to renew his challenge but a problem with the rear of his car prevented him from putting in the necessary fast third lap..

"It was a difficult qualifying in the end," Kubica said afterwards.

"Finally we were on the right pace. Qualifying 1 was good and qualifying 2 was even better, as the first time on option tires was very good.

"I backed off in the last sector to just bring the car home, and it was still enough to be two or three tenths off the McLaren time.

"In qualifying 3 I went through the first sector without any problems, but then I felt the same problem at the rear I felt on Friday. Now we have to analyse everything and see what is going on."

Kovelainen said: "It's great to be on pole! Our pace has been good all week, and I'm confident our strategy will be strong.

"They were quite difficult qualifying conditions, with dark skies and blustery winds in Q1. But in the second part it was much better without any problems, before a great run in the final part which I'm very happy about.

"Tomorrow is still a long race and anything can happen, but the balance in high and low speeds is as good as it's been all season."

Equally as stunned was Webber as he said: "It's a bit of a surprise. We've been pretty strong this week but we didn't realise how strong.

"There might be a bit of a difference in terms of fuel loads, but it's a credit to the team who have worked incredibly hard.

"We did our job today. I felt comfortable in the car and could push it to the limit. I've got second and I can't wait for tomorrow. I wish the race was now."

Raikkonen was reasonably satisfied with his performance given a tough day in practice yesterday when he was far from happy with the car.

"Today was better compared to yesterday which was very difficult, but we put in a lot of effort to sort my car out," said Raikkonen.

"We're not exactly where we want to be, but then we're not sure how much fuel people have, although Heikki has been fast all weekend. I'm pretty happy with the car, and I feel we should get some points."

The first qualifying mini-session began in dry, cloudy conditions but with the threat of rain ever-present, all the drivers immediately took to the track.

At the top of the times Kovalainen led the way, marginally ahead of Hamilton and Vettel, while at the bottom the slowest five drivers were eliminated from contention.

Force India's Italian veteran Giancarlo Fisichella was the first man to be eliminated and will start on the back row of the grid alongside his German teammate Adrian Sutil.

Nico Rosberg spent the session fighting with his Williams and was knocked out at the first stage for the first time this season. He will start from 18th on the grid.

The final drivers to go were Honda pair Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello. The Englishman and the Brazilian will start from 17th and 16th respectively.

Hamilton was quickest in the second mini-session with Kovalainen and Webber just behind.

This time Williams' Japanese driver Kazuki Nakajima was the first man to be eliminated and will start the race from 15th, just behind Toyota's Jarno Trulli and Toro Rosso's Sebastien Bourdais who will start on the seventh row of the grid.

The last two drivers not to make the top-10 shootout were Trulli's teammate Timo Glock and Red Bull's David Coulthard who will take the 12th and 11th positions respectively.