Find out how the drivers line up

Formula One championship leader Jenson Button ruled out a home victory after qualifying a disappointing sixth for Sunday's British Grand Prix.

"I think it is almost impossible, I haven't had the pace all weekend," the Brawn GP driver said. "I was hoping for something a bit better, being sixth is a lot worse than what I thought it would be. So it's going to be a difficult race tomorrow."

Button pinpointed poor tyre grip for his lowest qualifying position so far this year and the first setback of a campaign that has begun with six wins from the opening seven races.

A bumper crowd lined the Silverstone circuit with flags in support of Button, but their hopes of seeing him repeat fellow Briton Lewis Hamilton's win last year appear bleak.

"I am sure they [home crowd] would love me to win tomorrow but that's going to be pretty difficult. I think a podium is also difficult," Button added.

With the Silverstone circuit due to hand over to Donington in 2010, unless the new venue is not ready in time, the pressure was on the in-form Button to deliver a British win and a fairytale send-off.

"When I get in the car I don't feel it (pressure)," he said. "I would be massively disappointed if anywhere round the world I was qualifying sixth at the moment, I was hoping to be a lot higher."

Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel and Button's Brawn team mate Rubens Barrichello, who start first and second on the grid, both have the opportunity to reduce the Briton's championship lead on Sunday.

Button has a 26-point lead over Barrichello, who has yet to beat the Briton this year but who won at Silverstone in 2003 for Ferrari, and is 32 ahead of Vettel with 10 races remaining.

Vettel, first in China in a Red Bull one-two, is the only driver other than Button to have won this year and will be favourite on Sunday. Sebastian Vettel will start from pole for tomorrow's British Grand Prix after crushing his rivals in qualifying, leaving championship leader Jenson Button down in sixth.

Vettel finished nearly four tenths of a second quicker than Rubens Barrichello in his Brawn GP, and Mark Webber who missed out on an all-Red Bull Racing front row by 0.012secs.