Brits are top of Silverstone flops

SILVERSTONE, England, July 19 (AFP) - Britain's small troop of Formula One drivers shuffled embarrassingly away from their home fans on Saturday after they endured a dismal qualifying session for the British Grand Prix.

McLaren's David Coulthard, who has won this event twice, was the best placed of the home guard but all he could manage was 12th spot in the 20-man field.

BizVantage – When knowing counts: Business, Investing, Technology.
Try the free, no-hassle 6 month trial!

Ralph Firman, in a Jordan, was 17th, Minardi's Justin Wilson limped home in 18th spot while Jenson Button never even made it that far as his BAR-Honda was forced to retire.

The young Briton will have to start Sunday's race from the back of the grid as punishment.

"I was really struggling with the balance of the car," said Coulthard whose hopes of winning a world title this year are virtually over and will start the race 1.602sec behind pole-sitter Rubens Barrichello.

"I ran wide at Stowe, locked up the front under-braking at Club and lost a lot of time.

"It will a challenging race for me in front of my home crowd. However, I have started from similar positions before and still managed to finish in the points or even on the podium."

Button, taking part in his fourth home race, was forced to retire when his Honda lost its suspension.

"The car was working well until that point. We changed a few things from the warm-up and the high-speed corners felt great. We had a lot more grip through Copse and Becketts," he said.

"I decided then to push harder through the last corner before the Hangar Straight. I ran a couple of inches wide, hit the kerb, there was a loud bang and I couldn't continue.

"It's a great shame as this is my home race and the new car package had been working well so this was a good chance to have a strong qualifying position.

"We could have been right up there but instead we are starting from 20th place but I am sure we can salvage something."

Firman, who has spent the vast part of the year at the back of the field in his debut season, is getting used to it by now.

"We had massive understeer which we didn't cure before qualifying," said Firman.

"I didn't really want to change the car too much because I want to keep a good race car but that compromised our qualifying performance."

dj/gj03

Auto-Prix-GBR-British