The predicted rain was long gone by the time qualifying came around. It spat occaisionally but there was nothing for the drivers to worry about and they could get used to dry running.

The one driver who did find a wet spot though - Tonio Liuzzi - quickly regretted it, his car was out of control and into the pit wall after a slight excursion onto some wet grasscrete on the last turn. He should have known better and the session was red flagged. When the cars returned to the circuit the pressure was off for this part of qualifying. Liuzzi and the three slower teams were guarenteed to fail and did not disappoint. There was a good battle between Glock and the Lotus cars for best of the new teams though and they seemed much closer to the established boys here, partly down to the shorter track and partly down to the ever coming improvements.

Session 2 saw the track ever improving, Michael Schumacher just missed out on a place in part three to his teammate by under a tenth after running wide in the final turn on his last lap. Qualifying was not positive for Mercedes today. Kobayashi having impressed today also dropped out (again by a very small margin) and he will be hoping for another storming drive to points tomorrow. That BMW Sauber truly coming alive under his driving now as he shows the promise from last year.

The top 10 shootout was always billed as a battle between Ferrari and Red Bull this weekend, Mclaren just haven't had the edge they have had at some tracks and are simply the third best team. Webber lost out on his opportunity to mix it with his teammate for pole by going off at turn 1 on his last lap. This left it down to a battle for pole between Vettel and Alonso, Both drivers need a win this weekend and neither disappointed. Vettel struck first with an insane lap in the 1"13's and then Alonso came across the line and lost out by only 0.002 secs. It was very tight for pole today and Ferrari will be disappointed that they missed out.

The close battle for pole should encourage Ferrari for tomorrow though, the Red Bull cars are dominant in qualifying but their race pace and craft has left a lot to be desired often this season. Both Alonso and Vettel struggled with their starts at Silverstone as well so we cannot count out Webber or Massa a row behind and Hamilton is always quick off the line and will want to be higher than 6th by the end of the race tomorrow.

It all sets up a great race tomorrow wet or dry as the top three teams fight it out for an important win as we enter the second half of the year.