Formula One British Grand Prix: As a stiff wind kept the grey clouds racing across the sky, preparations for the British Grand Prix inevitably revolved around the very British obsession of the weather.
That basically means speculating as to whether Michael Schumacher's Ferrari will win commandingly on dry-weather tyres or convincingly on Bridgestone's competitive rain tyres.
Barring unexpected flood or tempest, there is precious little to stand between Schumacher and his 10th win in 11 races, another stopping point on his cruise towards a seventh world title.
"If it rains, then just forget it," said one of the Renault technical team who are hoping that the track will stay dry enough for their men, Jarno Trulli and Fernando Alonso, to make the most of a nimble chassis.
The trouble is that, while most cars have weak points, the all-conquering Ferrari has no obvious area of technical vulnerability. At the end of the day Kimi Raikkonen popped in the fastest time at the wheel of the new McLaren MP4/19B, which will feature in its second race after a promising debut in France last week.
But Giancarlo Fisichella's Sauber in second place served as a reminder that the Friday session is one where the validity of lap times is determined by the weight of the fuel in the tank.
In any event, the significance of Fisichella's performance was undermined by the fact that he suffered an engine failure in the first practice session. The installation of a fresh Ferrari V10 engine earned him a 10-place grid penalty for qualifying this afternoon.
Raikkonen felt confident. "I had a positive test here at Silverstone in the 19B a few weeks ago," he said, "so I was quite confident that the car would be good. Hopefully we can continue to improve it in tomorrow's session as well."
Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello finished the day third- and fourth-fastest, with David Coulthard in the other McLaren and Jenson Button's BAR-Honda keeping comfortably in play in fifth and sixth respectively at the end of the day.
For Button, Silverstone is a track which gives him a real buzz: not simply the crowds cheering him on, but the sheer exhilaration generated from tackling it competitively.
He describes the high-speed Becketts corner, where you downchange from seventh to sixth gear after an 190-mph approach, as "one of the very few corners in Formula One where I think 'Jeez, I'm going quick'. It may be the proximity of the barrier, or the change of direction. But it's quite something, believe me."
Geoff Willis, BAR's technical director, said he felt confident Button would be successful tomorrow. "It is a circuit that requires a harder tyre solution than normal, to cope with the very high-speed corners and loadings they induce," he said.
"The nature of the corners requires a car that can be stable under high-speed changes of direction without generating lower-speed understeer or poor traction.
"We were able to use the Silverstone test in early June to work on the tyre choices with Michelin and investigate set-up solutions suited to the track. So going into our home race we are confident of fighting for a good result."
The Jordans of Nick Heidfeld and Giorgio Pantano were 20th and 23rd respectively. Test driver Timo Glock was 21st.
