SILVERSTONE , England – Fernando Alonso will start Sunday's British Grand Prix in pole position for Ferrari after finishing quickest in a rain-hit qualifying session here Saturday. The Spaniard, who currently leads the drivers standings, will be joined on the first line of the grid by Red Bull's Marc Webber. It will be Alonso's first start on pole since the 2010 Singapore Grand Prix and the 21st of his career in Formula One. The double world champion is the only driver to have won more than once this year with victories in Malaysia and in the European Grand Prix at Valencia and in a qualifying session badly disrupted by wet conditions he posted the best time of 1 minute 51.746 seconds. That was marginally better than Webber who is in second place behind Alonso in the drivers standings, 20 points adrift. Michael Schumacher took third place in his Mercedes with fellow German and reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel beside him on the second row. Both McLaren drivers struggled with Lewis Hamilton eighth and Jenson Button failing to make it out of the first qualifying session. Qualifying was interrupted for more than 90 minutes after the circuit was deluged in water. The organizers declared that Sunday's race will go ahead – despite telling more than 20,000 fans with public car park tickets to stay away from the circuit. As the sun shone intermittently through breaks in thick cloud cover, Silverstone officials said that they had asked for people holding public passes for Saturday's qualifying session to stay at home. They said they needed time to allow their flooded car parks to dry out following a series of deluges that caused chaos and uproar around the circuit Friday. Managing director Richard Phillips said: “We are strongly advising anyone with a public parking ticket not to come today – Saturday. They will all be refunded for their tickets." He apologized for the appalling scenes Friday when thousands of fans were left grid-locked in traffic jams around the circuit while others abandoned their cars in sodden fields and camp sites. — Agencies
