Twenty-two-year-old Australian Daniel Ricciardo has qualified for his first Formula One grand prix, at Britain's Silverstone circuit tonight, and now his aim is to finish.

Fellow Australian Mark Webber, winner of the British GP last year, has qualified on pole position ahead of his world champion teammate Sebastian Vettel.

Ricciardo will start 24th and last in his debut with Spanish-owned team Hispania Racing, to which he has been "loaned" for the rest of this season by Red Bull - which has groomed Ricciardo through its elite junior driver development squad for four years to race in F1.

Tonight will be the first time that two Australians have started an F1 race since Alan Jones and Vern Schuppan at the 1977 Austrian GP - which Jones won.

"I won't drive a different race because Daniel's on the grid, but it's good to have him in F1," Webber said.

"He's a fast driver and he fully deserves to be here (having won more than 20 races in Europe's lower open-wheeler ranks).

"He's going to learn a lot this weekend, particularly about how an F1 weekend works.

"Finishing your first GP is a nice feeling and I hope he experiences that."

Webber's first F1 race was the 2002 Australian GP in Melbourne, when he finished an amazing fifth in a Minardi.

Ricciardo, of Duncraig in Perth and the first West Australian to drive in F1, said his first GP qualifying session had been "all right, but it was a bit frustrating with the (changeable) weather".

"We couldn't do two runs, so we were just limited to one - but it was OK," Ricciardo said.

"I would like to be a little bit closer to the rest of the field, but I can't try to expect too much for now - it's a big learning curve.

"I'm half a second off Tonio (experienced Italian teammate Tonio Liuzzi), which isn't much, but for a racing car driver it is quite a lot.

"I want more, but I shouldn't really expect too much at this stage.

"If I can keep closing the gap (to Liuzzi) then it's OK."

Ricciardo has "driven" extensively on world champion team Red Bull Racing's F1 simulator for three years and topped the post-season test for young drivers on the cusp of F1 in its RB5 and RB7 cars the past two years - firstly at Jerez in Spain and then at Abu Dhabi last year.

This year he drove in the Friday morning practice sessions at all eight GPs so far for Red Bull-owned, Italian-based Scuderia Toro Rosso, before the deal was done for him to replace Indian driver Narain Karthikeyan at Hispania Racing for 10 races.

While Hispania is the backmarker team in F1, Ricciardo said its F111 car - which he only drove for the first time on Friday - "is actually quite good".

"The level of grip with the option tyres has surprised me," he said.

"That's one part that will come from experience; knowing how far I can push it.

"In high-speed corners I can still race at my speed.

"I think there's definitely potential and, if I'm able to keep an open mind and am willing to learn; I think we will definitely move forward.

"I only met the team on Wednesday and it's been a pretty deep introduction and I think it's gone quite smoothly - everyone seems really nice.

"With the engineers, it's hard to come into F1 and start a fresh relationship in the middle of a season, but I think we're doing quite well - and I'm sure it gets easier from here.

"I expect to finish the race and be competitive. If I can maybe close the gap in the race, and be within a few tenths of a second of Tonio, I think that would be a positive start and some progress. If we can get ahead of a few other cars then that would be a good result."

Hispania Racing team principal Colin Kolles said Saturday's qualifying had been difficult but he now hoped for rain in tonight's race.

"For us, starting at the end of the grid, the best would be to have heavy rain like in Canada (in June) for the race," Kolles said.

"It (Saturday) was a difficult day because a lot of rain came down in the morning final free practice session and it wasn't easy to get the set-up right for qualifying.

"Obviously, also during qualifying it started to rain and, unfortunately, we had the wrong timing and were unable to do a second run.

"So this is why the result is quite disappointing. Tomorrow (Sunday) we have to finish the race and we will see what will be the end.Today I would have expected more - we knew that it would be difficult because we had traction problems and have a lack of downforce.

"We had some new parts on the car but, unfortunately, it was difficult to get the right timing and to react in the right way under these circumstances. If tomorrow we have what we had today then I will be happy.

"In free practice it's better to have dry conditions; in qualifying it's better to have consistent conditions, either rain or dry, and all this didn't happen. The best for us would be to have heavy rain for the race."