Webber starts on pole for British GP

Australian Mark Webber starts on pole for the British Grand Prix on Sunday morning amid a series of rows, rule changes and u-turns over the sport's regulations for engines and exhausts. Webber smiled, but also grimaced, having taken pole position for Red Bull ahead of defending champion Sebastian Vettel on a grid book-ended by two Australians, himself and debutant Daniel Ricciardo of Hispania. With two Ferraris on the second row, in the hands of two-times champion Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, there were no British drivers to be seen among the front-runners for their home race. The nearest to a realistic hope came in the shape of 2009 champion Jenson Button, in the leading McLaren. Alongside him was another, but it was not his team-mate and 2008 champion Lewis Hamilton, but rookie Paul Di Resta, a Scotsman, who delivered a perfect qualifying performance on Saturday in his Mercedes-powered Force India. This was a fine feat and part of the multi-layered saga of discontent that has grown, like a cancer, in the body of this remarkable racing season. Not only was he the second-fastest Mercedes-engined man, but Di Resta had also qualified four places ahead of crowd favourite Hamilton whose father Anthony, dismissed as manager by his son last year, now looks after the talented young Scot's interests. How this played out through the complexity of Hamilton's emotional system is unknown, but his agitation at being let down, again, by McLaren was clear enough following a dismal qualifying on Saturday that sparked a flurry of Sunday headlines focussed on his summer of discontent. Needled rivalry, skulduggery and Machiavellian plots were afoot everywhere, it seemed, if the newspapers and paddock gossips were to be believed. A simmering row over exhaust emissions, engine rules and the grip generated by rear-end air-flow had already overshadowed all else on Friday and Saturday as team chiefs argued in public and delivered a passable imitation of F1's equivalent of a seaside version of a 'Punch and Judy' show. The slide into disappointment which appears to be gripping McLaren - the team has seemed to lack a hand on the rudder since Briton Ron Dennis stepped down in 2009 following a series of disgraceful controversies - was manifested on Saturday in their struggles on and off the track. But McLaren team chief Martin Whitmarsh at least did his best to rally British morale by refusing to concede his under-performing outfit cannot win here and still challenge for the championship. "We did not put on a competitive showing in qualifying," he said. "Our car is not quick enough and that's how it is, but we are not going to give up on Sunday. We are going to try and win races. We are not giving up on the championship." Whitmarsh admitted it was a team error that had cost Hamilton his chance to shine. "Lewis went out on used option tyres at the beginning and we let him down," he said, conceding that it was a strategic blunder. Hamilton himself, heartily fed up with McLaren's inconsistency and a series of mistakes this year, made clear he is reaching the end of his patience, upset with the amount of promotional work he has had to do in the run up to his home race. "I have just come from the last race and I have had a day or two off," he said. Hamilton may be the last Briton to win his home race in 2008 and only the second in the last 15 years - David Coulthard won in 1999 and 2000 - but Red Bull have won the last two at ease. All three British triumphs were achieved in McLaren cars, at least, a fact that Button clung to as rain threatened shortly before the race. The 31-year-old Englishman, who has never finished on the Silverstone podium in 11 attempts, said: "We are not fast enough. I don't know what's wrong, but I still think something can work for us and I can get up there." Button, like Britain, needed a miracle if there was to be a national celebration.