Hamilton 'happy' with fourth on the grid

The McLaren driver, who started from the front in his maiden British Grand Prix 12 months ago, made an error on his first run in Q3 on Saturday. His second attempt was only good enough for fourth behind teammate Heikki Kovalainen, Mark Webber's Red Bull and Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen.

But Hamilton remains optimistic of his chances for success on Sunday and was keen to praise Kovalainen, who notched up his first pole position in Formula One.

"Heikki did a fantastic job today and deserves to be on pole position," he said. "Fourth isn't bad - I'm quite happy with it to be honest. The weather will be up and down but I'm looking forward to the race."

Two of Hamilton's six grand prix victories have come in wet conditions (Fuji '07 and Monaco '08), but asked if he thought a wet race on Sunday would be good for him, the 23-year-old said his main concern was that the weather remained consistent.

"It would be nice to have it either one way or the other," he said. "But if it's dry at the start then rains it makes it all the more exciting. As long as me and Heikki are able to score good points for the team, that's the main focus."

Hamilton admitted that the windy conditions had made things more difficult in qualifying for the drivers, but wasn't sure whether it was a gust that contributed to his error at Priory.

"The first lap, the first two sectors were good and on the turn-in at Priory I had an oversteer moment and ended up in the gravel," he said. "On the second lap I didn't push as much into Priory and that was it.

"I don't know if it was due to the wind in that corner but it was very tricky conditions out there. It was quite tricky, especially around the back at Stowe. Then when you got to the last sector you are relying on the downforce. We'll have a look. I came in there like normal then all of a sudden I had a great front-end and the rear just gave up on me.

"But it is a circuit, the character of which makes it very difficult to figure out what the next corner is going to have in store."