Alonso takes pole in rain delayed qualifying

Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso & Mark Webber

Fernando Alonso will start on pole position for the British Grand Prix, his first pole since mid-2010, after a risky lap in the rain.

The Ferrari driver starts ahead of Mark Webber and Michael Schumacher in P2 and P3 respectively.

Sebastian Vettel and Felipe Massa couldn't match their team-mates and ended up fourth and fifth quickest, whilst Kimi Raikkonen and Pastor Maldonado complete the top seven cars.

Lewis Hamilton will start his home race in eighth place ahead of Nico Hulkenberg and Romain Grosjean who failed to set a timed lap after ending up in the gravel at the end of Q2.

Torrential rain halfway through the second session left the stewards with no option but to red flag it. With the downpour continuing for over an hour, the session wasn't restarted until 15:07 (local time), which gave the track a chance to dry.

As the session began, it was Hamilton who took to the conditions best to go quickest, as Paul di Resta, Nico Rosberg and Bruno Senna were among those unable to escape the drop-zone.

Jenson Button failed to make it out of the Q1 drop-zone after he missed the best of the conditions earlier in the session. He looked likely to jump up the order on his final lap, but yellow flags, the result of Timo Glock spinning, hampered his progress.

Button starts 18th ahead of the Caterham duo led by Vitaly Petrov, whilst the man who inadvertently ruined Button's lap, starts P21.

Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan will start ahead of Charles Pic who failed to qualify within the 107% time.

2012 British GP Qualifying Results (* = 5 place penalty):

iPad owner? Grab our free Newsstand app now and access our live news feed and grab a copy of The F1 Times Magazine with tons of exclusive content just for you.