It was the first pole win for Kovalainen in just his 26th starts with both McLaren and Renault.

"We've been going really well all weekend after finding some good pace during testing last week," said Kovalainen. "I've spent a lot of time racing in the UK so it feels great to have scored my first ever Formula One pole position at Silverstone."

Starting with Kovalainen on the front row will be Webber, who posted a time of 1:21.554.

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen (1:21.706) and Kovalainen's teammate at McLaren, Lewis Hamilton (1:21.835) will start in row two.

F1 points leader Felipe Massa was a disappointing ninth on the grid and blamed the problem on a long pit stop that didn't allow him a second run.

"I think I could have done a good time, maybe not enough to take pole but at least good enough for a place on the front two rows," said Massa.

In last year's race, Raikkonen trailed Fernando Alonso until the last pit stop, but when the Spaniard went in on lap 37 Raikkonen kept on going and with clean air in front of him was able to build a gap of 27.9 seconds. He finally pitted five laps later and a short 6.6-second stop enabled the Finnish driver to return to the track ahead of his rivals.

The first British Grand Prix was held here in 1948, and it was only meant to be held at the site once, as the track was originally an airfield. Giuseppe Farina won the first World Championship race in 1950 for Alfa Romeo.

The race begins Sunday at 8 a.m. (et).