Other line-up changes for the first practice session saw Paul di Resta stand in for Vitantonio Liuzzi at Force India and Fairuz Fauzy take over Jarno Trulli's driving duties at Lotus.

Meanwhile, McLaren introduced their interpretation of the blown diffuser concept pioneered by Red Bull at the start of the season and debuted by Ferrari and Mercedes at the European Grand Prix, only for the Woking-based team to abandon it after struggling during Friday practice.

The third and final session on Saturday morning continued the trend, with Sebastian Vettel returning to the top of the time sheets, with Mark Webber a close second; both drivers were the only two men to break the 1min 31sec barrier all weekend.

This prompted an angry outburst from the Australian, with public perception being that Red Bull had robbed Webber for the sake of favouring Vettel, particularly following the aftermath of their collision in Istanbul.

The second session saw the elimination of Jenson Button, with commentator Martin Brundle noting that the McLaren MP4-25 was incredibly rough over the bumps in the circuit, particularly on the approach to the new section.

Following the worst qualifying performance of his career in Valencia, Michael Schumacher set the fifth-fastest time of the session, with the team attributing their recent run of poor results to upgrading the car without fully understanding the effects of their new parts.

Vitantonio Liuzzi was issued with a five-place penalty after qualifying for impeding Nico Hülkenberg when the Italian violently cut across the Williams driver as he made a mistake at Abbey.

At the end of the session, Adrian Sutil had qualified eleventh, ahead of Kamui Kobayashi, Hülkenberg, Button, Petrov and Sébastien Buemi, with Liuzzi relegated to twentieth place after his penalty.

The German prevailed by a tenth of a second, prompting Webber's outburst, with the Australian expressing extreme dissatisfaction with lining up on the dirty side of the grid, which had traditionally been a bad starting place at Silverstone.

Despite earlier problems – suspected of being related to the car being caught in a crosswind – Robert Kubica managed sixth ahead of Felipe Massa, Rubens Barrichello and Pedro de la Rosa, the Spaniard's first time in Q3 all season.

Alonso was given a drive-through penalty for failing to give the place back to Kubica, but problems began when Adrian Sutil made contact with Pedro de la Rosa on the main straight.

Charlie Whiting, the FIA's race director, later told reporters that Alonso and Ferrari had been advised to yield to Kubica as soon as the Spaniard had passed the Renault, and twice more after that before the penalty was issued.

Sebastian Vettel, who had been just three seconds ahead of Mark Webber on the road, was able to join the rear of the safety car train and proceeded to wage war against the rest of the grid, picking them off one by one.

Several other battles also picked up, with Alonso and Liuzzi bashing wheels and Petrov threatening Nico Hülkenberg's tenth place until the Russian developed a slow puncture and was forced to pit.

The Toro Rosso driver beached himself at low speed on the outside of Luffield with eight laps to go, prompting marshalls to display yellow flags at the end of the new Wellington Straight and thus denying Vettel the opportunity to pass countryman Sutil into Brooklands.

Nico Rosberg claimed third place, Mercedes' first podium since the Chinese Grand Prix, with Jenson Button missing out on the winner's rostrum by half a second.

Race winner Mark Webber was still outspoken about the apparent favouritism within the Red Bull team; his first words after crossing the line were, "Fantastic, guys, not bad for a number two driver.