Red Bull sealed a one-two on the grid for the British Grand Prix as Sebastian Vettel beat Mark Webber to pole.

The Red Bulls were in a league of their own - Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, in third, was 0.811secs off Vettel.

Lewis Hamilton salvaged fourth from a difficult weekend for McLaren as team-mate Jenson Button managed only 14th after struggling for rear grip.

"I think there's something wrong - the car was pretty much undriveable," the world champion told BBC Sport.

Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg was fifth fastest, ahead of Renault's Robert Kubica and Ferrari's Felipe Massa.

The car was undriveable - Button
Rubens Barrichello was eighth in the improved Williams, ahead of Sauber's Pedro de la Rosa and Mercedes' Michael Schumacher.

Hamilton will probably be happy with fourth after McLaren were forced on to the back foot when they had to abandon a major upgrade following problems in Friday practice.

The 'blown diffuser', which the team had hoped would enable them to challenge Red Bull for pure pace, caused instability in the car's handling and overheating of its rear bodywork.

But McLaren are continuing with a new front wing that was intended to work in tandem with the new exhaust and diffuser system.

Red Bull dominated as they were expected to do, and it was Alonso rather than McLaren who was their closest rival.

The Spanish double world champion's best lap was ruined by Schumacher's Mercedes holding him up but he played down the incident, saying it was unlikely he would have beaten either of the Red Bulls.

606: DEBATE
Well, Lewis and Alonso side by side - this will be one crazy start come tomorrow. Perhaps they should start under the safety car

RantingMrP
Vettel said: "We have a lot of races and then we come here and you do the first couple of laps and it's amazing - the combination of corners, the speed we reach here, it's a bit crazy, but it's so much fun.

"I really like this track and fortunately our car works well here. It was a tight session here. In Q2 I was not perfectly happy but I had two very strong laps."

But there may well be another controversy brewing between Red Bull team-mates Vettel and Webber, who collided when disputing the lead in Turkey three races ago.

Red Bull came to Silverstone with a new front wing - but they only had two examples of it.

Vettel's was damaged when it fell off the car in morning practice - but it was the German who had it on his car in qualifying.

Top three drivers - British GP qualifying
Team boss Christian Horner said: "We only had one wing after this morning's incident and sometimes I have to make difficult decisions, and based on final practice and championship positions it had to go to the left-hand side of the garage."

He said the performance difference between the two wings was "minimal".

Vettel said: "Fortunately we could continue with the same kind of wing and that was the key for this afternoon."

Webber said: "I think the team were happy with the result today."

Vettel added: "From the outside, it is often quite difficult to judge what is going on. We know what we are doing, I think.

"I don't think it is a black and white answer on the wing but I was very happy I could continue with the same kind of wing."

Asked about his prospects of beating the Red Bulls in the race, Alonso said it was more likely that Spain would win the World Cup final against the Netherlands later on Sunday.

Force India's Vitantonio Liuzzi will start in 20th - his lowest grid position of the season - after incurring a five-place penalty for impeding Williams' Nico Hulkenberg.