Lewis Hamilton beaten to British GP pole
 Sadly for the sell-out crowd Lewis Hamilton missed out on pole 05 July 2008 Auto Trader's Stuart Milne was there. Read his thoughts on his first ever visit to a Grand Prix. View pictures of every F1 car in our British Grand Prix spotters’ guide slide show. If you’ve never seen an F1 car driven in anger, you simply can’t appreciate the noise they make. Arriving at Silverstone for the F1 qualifying I was greeted by a huge traffic jam and a crescendo of highly tuned V8 engines on the nearby circuit. Trekking to my grandstand seat, the sound was bordering on painful, so I cracked out my earplugs just in time to see a McLaren fly past and into the pits. Free practice was over. I wandered around Copse corner until I spotted an RAF helicopter display and waited at Maggotts for the next event; qualifying for the Porsche Supercup. Driven back to my grandstand seat at Copse by a sudden shower I checked out the flying 911s. It’s difficult to really know what’s going on with single-make series – plenty of obscure teams sponsored by some well-know – and not so well-known – companies. The rear-engined supercars looked lively though, particularly through the fast right-hander at Copse. After a brief break, I readied the earplugs for the afternoon’s main event. Qualifying lacks the initial drama of a full-throttle start, with drivers coming out, warming the car before doing a couple of hot laps, and back in again. Sadly for the sell-out crowd Lewis Hamilton missed out on pole. That honour went to his McLaren team mate Heikki Kovalainen, with Red Bull’s Mark Webber storming to second. Next up is GP2, the series which primed Hamilton for F1. The rest of the action kicks off tomorrow including the British Grand Prix itself. Read our full British Grand Prix coverage British Grand Prix 2008 guide British Grand Prix grid in full* 1. Heikki Kovalainen - McLaren-Mercedes 1:21.049 *pending any penalties |
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