British Grand Prix

By Andrew Benson
BBC Sport at Silverstone

Heikki did a fantastic job and he deserves to be on pole Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton could not explain why he was nearly a second slower than McLaren team-mate Heikki Kovalainen in qualifying for the British Grand Prix.

The Englishman qualified fourth at Silverstone on Saturday, 0.786 seconds behind the Finn's pole position lap.

"I have no clue why the car's not perfect," said the 23-year-old, who has not scored a point for two races.

"I haven't changed it, really, since testing [when he set the fastest time]. I don't know where the time is."

The true pace of drivers can be disguised in qualifying because those in the top-10 run-off are not allowed to refuel before the race.

If teams think it could be an advantage to run longer into the race before making a stop for fuel, they will send their drivers into qualifying with more fuel in their cars, making them heavier and therefore slower.

But the gap between Kovalainen and Hamilton equates to about eight laps' worth of fuel, and the Englishman said their strategies were "not significantly different".

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"On my first lap, my first two sectors were quite good," he said, "but at Priory I got a bit of oversteer - I had good front end, but the rear just gave up - I had to correct and went into the gravel.

"On my second lap, I didn't push as much into Priory and that was it."

Hamilton was warned over the radio by his engineer not to "over-drive" during his second qualifying run.

The Briton struggled at the British Grand Prix last year compared to then team-mate Fernando Alonso, and he has looked marginally off the pace of Kovalainen all weekend here.

But Hamilton said he did not think this season would follow the trend of last year, when Alonso was quicker than him at Silverstone, Spa and Monza - all tracks of reasonably similar character with high-speed corners.

"I think I'll be strong in the next few races," he said, "stronger than last year.

"Heikki did a fantastic job and he deserves to be on pole," added Hamilton, who started his post-qualifying news conference saying he was "quite happy" with fourth place.

"It's not too bad," said Hamilton, who will line up behind the second-placed Red Bull of Mark Webber, and world champion Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari.

He goes into the race in fourth place in the world championship, 10 points behind leader Felipe Massa, who starts ninth in his Ferrari.

BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica, who is 10th on the grid at Silverstone, is two points behind Massa, with Raikkonen a further three off the lead.