F1: Alonso Earns Rare Pole At Silverstone

Formula 1

F1: Alonso Earns Rare Pole At Silverstone

Fernando Alonso will roll off first in the British GP...

Jared Turner | Posted July 07, 2012 Silverstone (GBR)

A familiar adage holds that good things come to those who wait.

Such certainly proved to be the case for Fernando Alonso on Saturday at soggy Silverstone Circuit.

After waiting out an 85-minute red flag period necessitated by heavy downpours in Q2, the Spaniard took the top spot for Sunday's British GP with a thrilling run to pole in Q3.

Alonso, the World Championship leader and only two-time winner of 2012, led the way with a lap of 1:51:746 over Mark Webber (1:51:793), Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel and Felipe Massa.

Alonso also topped the time sheet in Saturday's final practice, which has been the only session of the weekend held under mostly dry conditions.

Saturday marked Alonso's first pole since Singapore in 2010, and put the Ferrari driver in a good position to snare his second straight British GP victory.

The two-time World Champion leads the driver standings by 20 points over Webber, the 2010 British GP winner who missed pole on Saturday by less than a tenth of a second.

Schumacher's strong qualifying run comes two weeks after placing third in Valencia for his first podium finish since coming out of retirement in 2010.

Positions six through 10 in qualifying went to Kimi Raikkonen, Pastor Maldonado, Lewis Hamilton, Nico Hulkenberg and Romain Grosjean.

Grosjean did not compete in Q3, however, after beaching his Lotus in the gravel in the final moments of Q2.

Jenson Button's qualifying struggles continued as the McLaren driver failed to advance out of Q1.

After a troubled P3 practice earlier Saturday, rookie Charles Pic failed to qualify within the 107 percent window and must await a stewards' decision on whether he can start the British GP.

SPEED coverage of the race begins with a half-hour prerace show at 11:30 a.m. ET Sunday, followed by race coverage on FOX at noon ET, and a half-hour postrace show on SPEED at 2 p.m.

Jared Turner is an Associate Editor for SPEED.com, covering NASCAR and Formula One, and is an Editor for TruckSeries.com. His professional motorsports writing career began in 2005.