Webber secures maiden Formula 1 pole

The two Brawns will start second and third, with Rubens Barrichello ahead of Jenson Button, while Silverstone winner Sebastian Vettel only managed fourth on home ground.

After earlier rain, the track had dried in time for the pole shoot-out, which initially saw Barrichello on provisional pole before Lewis Hamilton showed McLaren's improvement by temporarily snatching the top spot.

He could not hold on to it though, as Webber swept through to take the place for Red Bull by 0.127 seconds over Barrichello, with Button and Vettel 0.007s apart on row two.

Hamilton still took a fine fifth, although his team-mate Heikki Kovalainen's sixth was arguably an even better achievement given that he does not have the full array of McLaren upgrades, and that he spun and clouted the wall early in the damp Q2.

Adrian Sutil was the hero of the hour, getting Force India into Q3 for the first time ever thanks to typically excellent wet weather form, and then beating the two Ferraris and Renault's Nelson Piquet to earn a shock seventh on the grid for his home race.

The drizzle started late in Q1, turned to rain by the start of Q2, briefly eased and then returned as the second segment drew to a close.

Barrichello brilliantly timed his Q2 run - sitting out the wetter early minutes then throwing in a lap on slicks in the brief window when the track was slightly quicker. That guaranteed his progress into Q3, while all his rivals had to scrabble through as the rain came down again in the ensuing minutes.

The highest-profile casualty of the late-Q2 lottery was Fernando Alonso, who spun his Renault at the chicane on what should have been his best lap, leaving him 12th - the first time he had ever been out-qualified by Piquet.

Both BMWs were out early on home ground, Nick Heidfeld taking 11th but Robert Kubica struggling to 16th, the Pole looking unlikely to progress even before the drizzle arrived.

Kazuki Nakajima spun on his out-lap in Q2 but recovered unscathed and at least beat his Williams team-mate Nico Rosberg as they took 13th and 15th, split by Toyota's Jarno Trulli.

The Italian's team-mate Timo Glock had a dreadful session, making several errors even on a dry track in Q1 and ending up 19th, alongside the under-pressure Sebastien Bourdais, who went off at Turn 1 on his last flying lap as the rain arrived.

Pos  Driver       Team                       Q1        Q2        Q3     
 1.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:31.257  1:38.038  1:32.230
 2.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:31.482  1:34.455  1:32.357
 3.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:31.568  1:39.032  1:32.473
 4.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:31.430  1:39.504  1:32.480
 5.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:31.473  1:39.149  1:32.616
 6.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:31.881  1:40.826  1:33.859
 7.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:32.015  1:36.740  1:34.316
 8.  Massa        Ferrari               (B)  1:31.600  1:41.708  1:34.574
 9.  Raikkonen    Ferrari               (B)  1:31.869  1:41.730  1:34.710
10.  Piquet       Renault               (B)  1:32.128  1:35.737  1:34.803
11.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:31.771  1:42.310
12.  Alonso       Renault               (B)  1:31.302  1:42.318
13.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:31.884  1:42.500
14.  Trulli       Toyota                (B)  1:31.760  1:42.771
15.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:31.598  1:42.859
16.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:32.190
17.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:32.251
18.  Fisichella   Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:32.402
19.  Glock        Toyota                (B)  1:32.423
20.  Bourdais     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:33.559

All Timing Unofficial