THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SILVERSTONE — Sebastian Vettel claimed his fifth pole position of the season after edging out Red Bull teammate Mark Webber in qualifying for Sunday’s British Grand Prix.
Vettel, who won the Silverstone race last year from pole, posted a fastest time on Saturday of one minute 29.615 seconds.
"Silverstone is unbelievable. The corner combinations … they’re so much fun," Vettel said. "Our car obviously works very well in these sorts of corners, it’s so great, the speeds we reach here. I think we’re all a bit crazy, but it’s so much fun."
But while Red Bull was rampant on a revamped circuit where Vettel and Webber delivered a one-two finish last season, the issue of favouritism in the team emerged as both drivers fight for the title.
Webber’s car was stripped of the new version of Red Bull’s front wing before qualifying and attached to Vettel’s, with the German finishing 0.143 ahead of Webber.
"If you look at us we are different — one probably likes tea, the other likes coffee," Vettel said when asked about alleged favouritism. "If you look back at the qualifying session, it was extremely tight and I think there wasn’t much (between us)."
The decision to replace the wing damaged in the morning practice was made because third-place Vettel is ahead of Webber in the drivers’ championship after winning the European GP in Valencia, Spain, on June 27.
"Based on final practice and championship positions it had to go to the left hand side of the garage," Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said. "Obviously when you have two drivers running at the front, there is perhaps a bit more emotion attached to it, but if you take away the emotion and you look at the facts, it was an entirely logical thing to do."
Vettel is third overall with 115 points — 12 behind championship leader Lewis Hamilton on 127 and six behind defending world champion Jenson Button with 121. Webber is fourth with 103 points.
"I think the team is happy with the result today," Webber said. "I would rather be third on the grid, probably. Fernando (Alonso) is on the clean side."
Ferrari driver Alonso was 0.8 seconds off the pace in third. Hamilton was almost one tenth of a second behind Vettel as the McLarens remained sluggish despite abandoning the exhaust blown diffusers that had hindered the cars on Friday, having been implemented to match Red Bull.
"We’ve struggled all weekend. I’ve never run wide or gone off at a track so many times through Friday practice and this morning," Hamilton said. "It’s really down to getting a good start now because it’s virtually impossible to overtake on this track. It really is.
"It’s even more impossible than it was before I think because they have added another couple of faster corners, which is very, very hard to follow through."
The track will make it even harder for Button to finally achieve a podium finish at the British GP. The McLaren driver has failed on his previous 10 attempts and qualified in 14th Saturday on his home track.
Button’s best time was 1:31.699 — some 0.3 seconds out of the top 10 — in a car he called "undriveable." Button is second in the drivers’ championship, six points behind Hamilton but six ahead of Vettel.
"This weekend has been tricky for us, but that wasn’t normal," Button said. "We have got new aero parts on the car, we’ve a new front wing, and that is working really well, but something felt very wrong then.
"I was getting on with the car very well this morning, even though we did not have much practice, and it was moving along nicely, but I don’t know what happened then."
Nico Rosberg qualified in fifth for Mercedes ahead of Renault’s Robert Kubica, while German teammate Michael Schumacher will start in 10th for the race he won three times before initially retiring in 2006.
Force India’s Vitantonio Liuzzi has been dropped five places on the grid for impeding Nico Hulkenberg of Williams during qualifying and will start 20th.