There was controversy within Red Bull during the qualifying session at the British Grand Prix. The team had brought a new specification front wing to the track but only had two. They elected to place one on each car for the weekend gambling that neither driver would damage their wing. Unfortunately this gamble failed as Vettel lost his wing during the final practice session on Saturday. The team elected to remove Webber's wing and place it on Vettel's car thus refuelling the favouritism debate sparked after the Turkish GP. Webber was understandably upset and angry about the situation and duly missed out on pole position by a very narrow margin where had he had the wing and not Sebastien he would have been on pole.

Further back, Mclaren had found that their much anticipated updates were not working and had to go back to their old specification. This led to a car that Button was not happy with and it destroyed his qualifying session as he went out 14th. Hamilton meanwhile managed to muscle his car into P4 which was a brilliant effort with the third or fourth best car on the grid.