10.07.2004 Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello joined pole winning Kimi Raikkonen on the front row after a dry but blustery final qualifying session: Ferrari F1 qualifying report AND times from Silverstone

Kimi Raikkonen has been on the pace all weekend, and just to prove once and for all that McLaren’s dramatic turnaround in fortune has not been a fluke, the Finn pushed his way to his third-ever pole position at Silverstone on Saturday.

It proved to be a gripping session, after a farcical, and much criticised, pre-qualifying in which fears about possible rain meant that everyone was going slowly in order to run early in qualifying just in case.

The order was thus a little unusual, with Nick Heidfeld kicking things off followed by Christian Klien, Mark Webber and Marc Gene.

After a tense final qualifying in which the rain held off, the grid order was eventually Raikkonen and Barrichello on the front row, Button and Schumacher behind, then Trulli and Coulthard, Montoya and Sato, Webber and Massa, Gene and da Matta, Klien and Pantano, Alonso and Heidfeld, Bruni and Baumgartner and finally Panis and Fisichella.

Jean Todt: 'Pre-qualifying was affected by the weather forecast, in so much as we were expecting rain that did not come in the end.

'As expected, qualifying itself was a close fight. We are satisfied with the performance of our Bridgestone tyres and of our cars, with one on the front row and the other on the second.

'When looking at today’s result, a question mark hangs over the levels of fuel of the various cars. The weather is another uncertain factor for tomorrow. Our primary aim will be to pick up important points for both championships.'

Rubens Barrichello: 'I did run wide deliberately at Vale to get a slower time in pre-qualifying. It seemed a nicer way of doing it than just going slowly. I don’t see anything wrong with what I and many other drivers did.

'It is the result of the qualifying format. In a situation like this you have to be selfish and think of your strategy. I think we need to make the format better. I am happy with my second place, although my car started to slide in the final sector which is where I lost pole.

'I think I can have a very strong race as the car is good on full tanks and the Bridgestone tyres are performing well.'

Michael Schumacher: 'It was an interesting session and for strategic reasons we chose not to look too good in pre-qualifying. However, in qualifying the conditions remained much the same and I had a good lap.

'Of course, being second and fourth is not the ideal situation, but we will have to wait for the race to see how things work out.

'We know it is a long race tomorrow and our car and Bridgestone tyres are good over a race distance. Actually we were right about the rain, but the circuit seemed to be in the wrong place!'

Ross Brawn: 'Our weather forecast predicted rain for the second half of the qualifying session, therefore we did not want to risk being among the last out on track. We tried to do it in such a way that the other teams would not understand our intentions, but they did the same thing anyway.

'I think we have a slight tyre performance advantage over a distance and so we will keep that in mind as we work on tomorrow’s race. I think we will see a very close and exciting race, especially as the forecast is for unsettled weather.'

Pre-qualifying session, Rubens Barrichello: 12th 1.24.817 3 laps chassis 240, Michael Schumacher: 14th 1.30.293 3 laps chassis 239, Temperatures: air 18°C, track 26°C

Qualifying session, Rubens Barrichello: 2nd 1.18.305 3 laps chassis 240, Michael Schumacher: 4th 1.18.710 3 laps chassis 239, Temperatures: air 20°C, track 31°C