Lewis Hamilton will be hoping to put a disastrous month on and off the track firmly behind him when the young British driver starts his home grand prix from fourth position today, but he may need help from the weather.

Hamilton, 23, who has failed to score a point in either of his last two races at Magny-Cours and Montreal, struggled again in qualifying at Silverstone yesterday when he was comprehensively out-driven by teammate Heikki Kovalainen, Mark Webber of Red Bull and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen.

It had looked good for Hamilton when he was fastest in the first two sectors in his first flying lap of the final qualifying session, but he carried too much speed out of Priory Corner and ran wide going into the Brooklands complex. His team came on the radio warning him not to overdrive — a message they felt necessary to repeat — but although Hamilton’s final flying lap was cleaner, the car had undoubtedly been affected by being bounced around on the gravel, and the second row was the best he could manage.

It can only have added to Hamilton’s disappointment that Kovalainen took pole — the Finn’s first of his F1 career — by half a second, which is a huge margin. McLaren Mercedes made considerable improvements to their cars in a test on this circuit last week, and however much fuel they were carrying in comparison to the other frontrunners, with Ferrari struggling, Hamilton clearly had a car he should have put on the front row.

That much was evident when Kovalainen was particularly quick towards the end of his lap; so far this season the McLarens have tended to lose out to the Ferraris in the kind of slow, awkward corners that characterise the final sector of Silverstone.

Hamilton’s only consolation is that, unlike France two weeks ago, this is a circuit on which overtaking is possible, while if the forecast rain arrives, he proved in Japan last season and in Monaco in May that he is as good as anybody in the wet.

“I was quite relaxed, very relaxed, and the first two sectors were good, but coming into Priory I had an oversteer moment. On the second lap I didn’t push it as much into Priory, and that was it,” said Hamilton.

“Heikki did a fantastic job and deserves to be on pole, but fourth isn’t bad. I’m quite happy with it, to be honest. With our strategy and the predicted rain everything will be possible.”

He did admit, however, that his strategy — the amount of fuel load dictating when he will have to make the first pit stop — was not significantly different to that of Kovalainen, and his body language was once again that of a disappointed man.

Kovalainen, who spent much of his early career in the UK, has not enjoyed much good luck this season and taking his first pole at Silverstone was particularly pleasing.

“It’s clear we have improved, the car feels fantastic at the moment, and I’m confident our pace will be strong in the race,” said the Finn.

“It would have been better if we had both cars on the front row, but everybody saw Lewis’s lapse,” said team principal Ron Dennis. “He is still quick, and overall we feel we’re in a good position to do well in our home race.