How did Britain do in qualifying for the British Grand Prix? Some and some.

As established, Virgin Racing is the most British Formula 1 team. But they couldn’t beat Lotus in the usual Q1 battle of the new teams, Heikki Kovalainen about 0.3 seconds ahead of Timo Glock.

It got so much worse for Britain in Q2 though, Jenson Button dropping out as only the 14th fastest driver, in the process pretty much halving the chance of a home win tomorrow. He delightfully described the car as “undriveable” on BBC One, then on BBC Radio 5 Live expressed the hope that they’d find a problem with the car. It certainly looked bloody awful from the on-board camera.

Good old Lewis Hamilton though. He seems to revel in taming wild cars, and stuck it on the second row in 4th. Right next to his good friend Fernando Alonso, which is a tantalising prospect. Inevitably, Red Bull Racing reserved the front row, Sebastian Vettel on pole.

The other good news for Britain was Williams – so nearly the most British team. It’s quite incredible how much better the car has been over the last couple of races, and Rubens Barrichello qualifying 8th is very encouraging.