Formula One 2012

[Adam]

Maria de Villota has lost her right eye after her crash

[Katsuya]

Tragic news bizarre to think she could have been racing the car at Valencia and now this.

[Lineker]

Marussia test driver Maria de Villota has lost her right eye and remains in critical but stable condition following her crash on Tuesday.

Marussia said a surgical team at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge "embarked on a lengthy procedure to address the serious head and facial injuries sustained" in the accident.

The team said the operation began yesterday afternoon and she was in theatre until this morning.

Team boss John Booth said de Villota has lost her right eye as a consequence of the accident.

"We are grateful for the medical attention that Maria has been receiving and her family would like to thank the Neurological and Plastics surgical teams," said Booth in a statement.

"However it is with great sadness that I must report that, due to the injuries she sustained, Maria has lost her right eye.

"Maria's care and the well-being of her family remain our priority at this time. Her family are at the hospital and we are doing everything possible to support them.

"We ask for everyone's patience and understanding with regard to updates on Maria's condition. We will provide further information when it is appropriate to do so and with consideration for her family.

"In the meantime, we would all like to take this opportunity to praise the emergency services at Duxford Airfield, who were on stand-by yesterday, as is usual procedure for a Formula One test.

"With regard to the accident, we have embarked on a very comprehensive analysis of what happened and this work continues for the moment.

"Finally, we have been overwhelmed by messages of support for Maria, her family and the team and we would like to express our sincere gratitude for those."

Formula 1's driver penalty system is set for an overhaul, after it emerged the FIA is discussing changes to the way punishments are handed out.

Derek Warwick, who has acted as an FIA drivers' steward, said the validity of the current regulations had been discussed during a recent meeting of the stewards' council in Paris, and that "a few changes might be coming" as a result.

"We had a council meeting in Paris which I headed with Charlie [Whiting] and came away with some good ideas," Warwick told AUTOSPORT at the FOTA Fans' Forum at the Williams factory on Tuesday night.

"Whether anything can come of them and they can be introduced, I don't know - this is all a new process, we didn't use to have these meetings. Charlie will go away, analyse it and make recommendations. There might be a few changes coming along in the next few months or year.

"There is a code out there but I don't always agree with it - a drive through is too harsh a penalty for some incidents and not harsh enough for others. There is still room for tweaking.

"There were a few ideas to come out of the meeting with all the permanent stewards which were quite interesting. Charlie will produce an agenda and give it to Jean [Todt], but whether they can be introduced next year I don't know yet. This is all new, we didn't used to have these meetings."

Although Warwick could not disclose the exact details of the rules in discussion, he used the example of a drive through equating to different time losses at different circuits as part of the reason the rules were being reviewed.

"There are penalties inherited over time. Is a drive through at Canada, where you lose about 15s, the same as one at somewhere like Abu Dhabi for example?," he said.

"They all average out eventually, but I think we are always looking at changes."

Warwick also defended having a rotating panel of stewards, saying that the impartiality of the panel is beyond question regardless of who is on it.

"I can look back this year and think certain penalties have been too strong or too weak," he admitted. "If I step back I don't agree with some decisions, but that's because I don't have all the facts.

"I thought Schumacher should have been banned [following his move on Rubens Barrichello at Hungary 2010] but that wasn't the vote of the stewards.

"We haven't got all the facts. In the stewards room we have. We have all the angles, all the data and can make a more correct judgement."

McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh believes the time has come for the FIA to make a call on whether or not it wants to get involved in the policing of cost control in Formula 1, as he warns of big consequences if spending is allowed to get out of control.

Amid uncertainty about the status of cost cut plans in F1, after teams failed to reach a necessary agreement on regulation changes by the June 30 deadline, Whitmarsh thinks action needs to be taken on what is going to happen to the Resource Restriction Agreement going forwards.

"All of the teams have signed an RRA which is legally binding, but it is difficult to enforce it between ourselves other than morally," he told AUTOSPORT at the FOTA Fans' Forum on Tuesday night.

"And I have to say that every team looks me in the eyes and says it is operating within it. Maybe I am much too naive to be in F1 because I like to believe that people are telling me the truth. So, I don't get as excited about it.

"But the question now is how do we raise the level of confidence in the policing of it? The FIA has to make a decision about whether or when it gets involved in the policing of an RRA and some people don't welcome that.

"But it would be irresponsible if we don't maintain a control of costs in F1 because I am an F1 fan, I love the sport, I consider myself to be a reasonable businessman and if I look down beyond the top four teams I struggle to find a sustainable business model. And that worries me."

Whitmarsh believes that if spending levels are forced up because an RRA deal is not agreed, then there is a danger of smaller outfits being priced out of F1.

"We are complacent now we have got 12 teams - but that can change overnight," he said. "You don't want to wait until after the dominoes start to fall to suddenly say we better do something.

"Although crisis is sometimes the best way to galvanise and focus opinion, it is much better to say let's try and avoid the crisis and work harder so we have achieved a lot so far – and it will be a never ending process."

He added: "What we cannot afford is for the sport to become a completely unfettered spend fest. That gives no prospect to the small teams of surviving and it gives no prospect to new teams coming in. We owe it to show constraint."

Although it is understood ten of the current teams had agreed a raft of cost measures and a means of policing the RRA before the FIA's June 30 deadline, the objections of Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso to those plans meant the FIA was not willing to take them to a fax vote of the World Motor Sport Council.

It is understood, however, that the governing body is still open to any amendments for 2013 as long as they are proposed before July 24 – so they can be voted through before the September 30 deadline for next year's entries.

Any changes after that date will require mandatory unanimous support, something that is unlikely to happen because Red Bull's teams are unhappy that manufacturer-backed teams could gain an advantage if an RRA does not encompass engine restrictions as well as chassis constraints.

McLaren sporting director Sam Michael is confident that there will be no repeat of the pitlane problems that hit the team in the European Grand Prix after exhaustive testing of its modified swivel jacks.

Lewis Hamilton's second stop in Valencia lasted over 14 seconds because off a front jack failure. McLaren has modified the design to rectify the fault and Michael believes that it will work as expected.

"We identified why that failed and the design has been modified," said Michael. "On Monday this week, we completed 800 pitstops on the jacking systems with no faults at all.

"During a race weekend, we would probably do about 50 pitstops, including all of the practices, so effectively we did 16 grand prix weekends on Monday.

"We believe that we have solved it, but at least we have done good due diligence on the new design for Silverstone. If we go there and have a fault we can say that we have done as much as we could, which is what we do in engineering."

McLaren has suffered a litany of pitstop problems this season, but Michael is adamant that it has not sacrificed consistency in pursuit of speed.

Numerous changes have been made to procedures and equipment since last year, including the introduction of a traffic light system, swivel jacks and retained wheel nuts.

Michael believes that hitches are inevitable with new technology, but that ultimately it will lead to McLaren becoming consistently quick in the pits.

McLaren set a record stationary time in Valencia of 2.6 seconds and its overall time spent in the pitlane during that stop was four tenths faster than Ferrari. But its average time was poor due to the jack problem during Hamilton's second stop.

"Consistency always has been our goal and all of the technology that we have added has actually been to add consistency rather than speed," said Michael.

"We have gained speed at the same time, but that's not at all our focus. This year, we have been on a technology and personnel ramp-up, we have introduced a lot of different parts.

"The very nature of R&D is that you sometimes get things wrong and that's what happened to us in Valencia. If you look back at the other teams that have introduced some of these items before us, they went through similar pain and some of them are still going through it.

"We're not unique in having problems but we most certainly take it very seriously internally. Being on a curve in the last few races into this season with that equipment, it's absolutely natural that we are going to have issues."

Michael added that McLaren's right-rear gunner, who was cut by an endplate on Hamilton's car in Valencia during a pitstop, is recovering well.

"He has recovered very well and he may be back for Silverstone," said Michael. "But we have a backup plan in case he's not."

McLaren's sporting director Sam Michael does not believe Red Bull will be able to keep the same kind of advantage it had in Valencia in this weekend's British Grand Prix.

Sebastian Vettel dominated the European Grand Prix from pole position, opening a comfortable gap over his rivals before he was forced to retire with a mechanical problem.

The German was often nearly a second quicker per lap than McLaren's Lewis Hamilton before his retirement.

And although some expect Red Bull to be the team to beat at Silverstone, Michael reckons the team's advantage was circuit-specific and is expecting the Milton Keynes team to be closer to its rivals this weekend.

"It [Red Bull's advantage] probably has got some circuit-specific nature to it," said Michael during a Vodafone phone-in on Wednesday.

"Valencia hasn't been a track that we have traditionally been very good at and if you look forward to Silverstone this weekend, it definitely fits more in line with where the McLaren car strengths are.

"However, they did take a step forward but I don't think it's as big as the pace that Sebastian showed in that first stint and we will be looking to correct that at Silverstone."

He added: "If we look back to Barcelona, we were almost six tenths in front of them on the grid before we took the penalty, so looking at the type of track that Silverstone is, we're hoping for a repeat of that."

Michael believes that the fact that Red Bull made such a leap in terms of performance compared to the previous races is proof that its advantage was more than to the nature of the Valencia circuit than to the updates introduced there.

"Because the changes that they made to the car, if you look at that pace it was a second a lap. To find a second lap in F1 through changing some fairly secondary parts on the top surface on the floor, which is where we know they have changed, to get a second a lap in F1 would be pretty impressive.

"When we arrive in Silverstone we will find out if that is the case but I will be pretty surprised if they maintain a second a lap gap on the rest of the field.

"It was very impressive pace, but ultimately we have seen this year that if you get the tyres working properly and you fall into that window then you can generate some enormous amounts of grip. We have seen that four or five times this year and Sebastian was definitely bang on the tyres in that first stint. So it was reflective of that rather than the car upgrade."

McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh has backed the job that new sporting director Sam Michael has done for the team this year - and even suggested he could be the man to replace him in the future.

Michael has faced criticism this year because of a number of high profile pitstop errors that have proved costly in races.

However, with the pit crew having almost made big progress in improving its performance – which manifested itself in delivering the fastest ever Formula 1 stop in Valencia – Whitmarsh sees only positives from Michael's input.

"I think Sam has had a tough time, with high expectations, but I think he is good leader material," Whitmarsh told AUTOSPORT.

"He is someone who is, I am sure, harbouring expectations to kick me out of my job one day. And I think that is healthy because there probably wasn't anyone in the company, below me at least, who wanted my job. So I think that is a healthy dynamic."

Whitmarsh believes Michael's strong character was a key consideration when the team signed him – and that soon the team will be focusing on how good its pit crew are doing rather than ironing out the mistakes.

"I didn't know Sam very well before, but I had come across him in meetings and I always thought he was strong and forthright, and that is what drew me to think that he was the sort of man we needed," said Whitmarsh.

"So I think it has been unfortunate, but he is strong and resilient and we will power through it. For the last two grands prix we have had the fastest pit stops in the race, and in the last race it was the fastest pit stop in the history of F1.

"But naturally people will not focus on that, they will focus on other issues, which is fine because so do we. We don't focus on – 'oh, we just did 2.6 seconds', we say, 'what happened at the other stop?' That is fine. It doesn't worry me and I don't think it will worry him either."

Felipe Massa reckons it is very hard to predict how competitive Ferrari will be in the British Grand Prix.

But the Brazilian is hopeful the high-speed nature of the Silverstone circuit will suit the characteristics of his Ferrari.

"It's difficult to have a clear picture of how competitive we should be," said Massa on Ferrari's website on Wednesday.

"Especially this year, we have seen results in the races that we could never have expected. Silverstone is a very different track to the last few, so we need to be ready for everything and arrive as well prepared as possible.

"Who knows, maybe Silverstone can be even better than expected for us. But if you look at Valencia where we had 13 cars in three tenths in Q2, it shows you really cannot make predictions this season.

"However, we believe our car is not too bad in the high speed corners and so I feel we should discover a good F2012 when we start practice there on Friday."

The Brazilian, who struggled in the early part of the 2012 season, insisted he is now feeling much stronger thanks to the changes he and his engineer Rob Smedley have implemented.

"I've worked with Rob since 2006, starting with him as my race engineer at the Nurburgring," he said. "After all this time, he knows exactly what I want and need from a car and he understands everything about my driving style.

"However, every year the car changes, the tyres are different and many other elements change from one year to the next so we always have to learn together.

"This year, for example, the first few races were a bit difficult, but from then on we changed direction in some areas and now, the work in terms of finding the right set-up at every track seems much more automatic. At this point of the season I feel much stronger thanks to this."

[Lineker]

Maria de Villota remains in critical but stable condition two days after her dramatic accident, her family said on Thursday.

In a statement issued by the Marussia team in behalf of her sister Isabel, the family said it took some encouragement from the fact that de Villota remained stable after Wednesday's surgery.

De Villota lost her right eye in the accident and had to undergo extensive surgery in a Cambridge hospital.

"Maria remains in a critical but stable condition here at Addenbrooke's Hospital," Isabel de Villota wrote in the statement.

"While there is no further news than that at present, we have at least been able to take encouragement from the fact that Maria has remained stable throughout since the accident, particularly during the first night following such a lengthy surgical procedure as she experienced yesterday.

"We, the family, are supporting each other here at Maria's side and we take great comfort from the remarkable medical care she has been receiving.

"We remain positive and this is due, in no small part, to the overwhelming expression of love and support for Maria from every corner of the world. We would also wish to thank everyone at the Marussia F1 team for all the care and attention they have shown us over the past few days."

De Villota's situation has touched a number of drivers in the paddock, and Felipe Massa - who himself recovered from a head injury – said he hoped the FIA would get involved in seeing if lessons can be learned from what happened.

"She has 100 per cent of my support because I was in a similar condition," said the Brazilian at Silverstone on Thursday. "Thank God nothing happened to me, but we saw that a hard thing has happened to her and she may have lost one of her eyes. This is for sure a very big thing.

"I hope everything will be okay for her to live her life in the best way she deserves. Actually it is very difficult to say what has happened, I don't know yet what has happened to her. The only thing I know is that she was driving at an airfield, and she had a problem with a truck, and it is not normal in F1 to have this kind of accident.

"In my case I had something flying on the track and it hit me, but it was from another car, it is a completely different thing. We need to understand what has happened, that is the most important thing - and the FIA needs to understand as well to put all the tests and everything in place, and all the conditions for the maximum safety that we need to have."

Formula 1 must learn from the straightline testing crash that cost Marussia test driver Maria de Villota her right eye and left her in a critical condition, according to GPDA chairman Pedro de la Rosa.

Aerodynamic testing is only permitted at FIA-approved venues, so safety standards are already high, but de la Rosa is adamant that lessons can be learned from what happened.

"We will put the facts on the table to see if there is anything we need to change to improve," said de la Rosa when asked whether the GPDA will be looking into the crash.

"When an accident happens, it means that something didn't work properly. We need to make sure between the FIA, the teams and the GPDA that we make changes for the future becaue it's not good enough."

De la Rosa stressed that he has not yet received any information on the crash, so is unwilling to draw any conclusions.

But he said the need for the sport to ensure that there is no repeat of such an accident.

"The first thing we need to do is understand what happened, what safety measures were taken and how the airfield was prepared for Formula 1 testing," said de la Rosa.

"We know the sole objective of making sure nothing like that happens again. But first we need to know the facts and we have no information whatsoever at the moment."

British Grand Prix organisers have assured fans that contingency plans are in place to prevent major trouble if the event is hit by bad weather this weekend.

With forecasts predicting a wet weekend at Silverstone, circuit bosses are taking a no-risk approach as part of a £1 million traffic scheme that has been put in place.

Circuit boss Richard Phillips said on Thursday that efforts were being ramped on car parks to prevent trouble - and that fans should be braced for officials to be taking extra precautions in the event that there is a torrential downpour.

This could include cars being packed bumper-to-bumper into asphalt car parks rather than risk being left on grass fields.

"We are trying to pre-empt events, and we have contingency plans in place," said Phillips. "Whether we use them or not will be reviewed as we go on, and that is looked at every four hours.

"We have a lot of hard standing car parks, and car parks with road ways in them, but we have some car parks that are fields. As of yesterday afternoon they were alright, but as of this morning they have gone on to amber status.

"They will bear up if there is no more rain, and will certainly bear up for one day, but what we need to try and do is make sure we are okay for three days.

"So if at 5am tomorrow morning we have had a lot of rain, then it could be that we have to get into a situation of bumper-to-bumper parking on hard standing.

"We would rather do that, if we had to, and make sure people can get into a car park and out of a car park rather than skidding around on mud – with health and safety issues."

Silverstone is predicting a crowd of 125,000 on Sunday for what will be its largest crowd for the British Grand Prix, with 80,000 spectators expected on Friday and Saturday.

McLaren is targeting a raft of upgrades for the British and German Grands Prix in a big development push that it hopes will get it back to the head of the world championship table.

With Red Bull Racing having raised the stakes with an overhaul of its RB8 in Valencia that helped Sebastian Vettel dominate before he retired with an alternator failure, McLaren's own technical staff have been working hard to improve the performance of its car too.

Team principal Martin Whitmarsh has revealed that as well as a number of new aerodynamic parts for Silverstone, a much bigger visual change will be ready for the next race in Hockenheim.

"There should be seven or eight modifications coming through," Whitmarsh told AUTOSPORT. "It is a reasonable package, if all the parts deliver - that is if we get them out of manufacturing and on to the car, and if they deliver on track as we predict and we believe then it should be worth something.

"We have another package coming for Germany which visually is a bigger package of changes. It will be more noticeable.

"I think that is a worthwhile package and we will see if it is big enough. I think Red Bull are pushing hard at the moment, but so are Ferrari and so are a lot of teams. It is an amazingly competitive season, this is an exciting championship, and we have to deliver here."

Hamilton is currently 23 points behind leader Fernando Alonso in the title chase, and is heading in to the middle of the campaign amid fresh speculation about his contract situation for next year.

Whitmarsh said that from McLaren's side the team was in no rush to make a move – and said the focus was more on improving performance than finalising the 2013 driver line-up.

"I don't think we've wanted to distract ourselves from what we are doing," he said. "I suspect in the coming weeks we will sit down and find a decent outcome.

"I've known Lewis a long time and I think we have a very good understanding on one another, and I think there is a lot of mutual trust and respect – I hope and believe both ways. So I don't see that as a big issue, and we will see.

"I think it hasn't had the intensity of 'we must get this fixed' because we are pretty comfortable with each other at the moment, and we would rather focus on making the car quicker, not making mistakes, operating well and trying to win races and ultimately win the championship."

Vitaly Petrov believes Caterham can put up a "good fight" against nearest rivals Scuderia Toro Rosso at Silverstone's British Grand Prix this weekend, if aerodynamic updates deliver what they have promised in the windtunnel.

Caterham brings developments to Silverstone including new rear bodywork, a revised exhaust layout and a raft of aerodynamic surface modifications elsewhere on its chassis.

Petrov believes the Valencia weekend, which featured him running in the top 10 before a clash with Toro Rosso's Daniel Ricciardo dropped him to 13th, shows the team is developing in the right direction to move into the midfield fight.

"We've improved [the car] quite a lot by bringing some parts to Valencia but we're aiming for some good results here because we will have some good updates," said Petrov.

When asked if they could be enough to allow him and Heikki Kovalainen to challenge Toro Rosso, he replied: "I hope so. Sometimes [parts that are tested] in the windtunnel, you don't know if they'll work on the track. The windtunnel can be very different, in terms of temperature, but if the parts work as they did in the windtunnel, it will be a good fight with them.

"The Toro Rosso is a good car. Probably they're not as quick in qualy as they are in the races, they are able to manage the rear tyres very well."

When pressed how much the new upgrades would be worth, he added: "They have given us a target, but I cannot tell you what it is."

Petrov has shrugged off his collision with Ricciardo at Valencia, calling it a "racing incident" but added that "he really needs to leave me more room in future."

Pastor Maldonado says he is not planning to change his approach to racing despite the penalties he has been handed this year.

The Williams driver, the winner of the Spanish Grand Prix, was given a penalty for crashing with Sauber's Sergio Perez in Monaco and another one for his contact with Lewis Hamilton in Valencia.

His aggressive style has meant he has crashed several times this year, but Maldonado insists he does not intend to change his approach as he reckons drivers are making a difference in such a tight field this year.

"For sure, I will drive in the same way and so we need to push," said Maldonado. "The gaps are very close and I think the drivers are making the difference at the moment."

Maldonado, who made his Formula 1 debut last year with Williams, believes the penalties have just been a consequence of bad luck, and he feels the clash with Hamilton was simply a racing incident.

"I think I have been quite unlucky the last couple of races," said the Venezuelan. "Especially in Monaco and Montreal because I got penalised because of the gearbox and I crashed in qualifying in Montreal, but the pace was always there and I think in the last race it is difficult to value because Lewis was losing by three seconds per lap.

"I saw the chance to get on the podium when I had a very difficult race, especially at the beginning when I was P10 and then I had a good race and I was looking forward to getting on the podium as well. One and a half laps from the end I saw the chance to take the position against Lewis and he tried to defend and I tried to attack and it was normal racing contact I think.

"I was disappointed because they were good points for the team and for me but there are many races ahead and the season is still long."

The Williams driver said however that he did not feel the stewards were picking on him for his aggressive driving.

"I don't think so. I have been unlucky but it is like football, and for sure we need to respect the rules. If you do not respect the rules you get a penalty and that is it."

Kimi Raikkonen is hopeful his Lotus team is now on the right path to get the most out of its car in qualifying.

The team has been among the strongest in terms of race pace, but lowly qualifying positions have meant its chances of fighting for an elusive victory have been compromised.

Raikkonen however feels Lotus has been making progress in recent races, and that front row positions have therefore been possible.

"I think we have had a chance in a few races but I haven't got the best out of it, and maybe I have made some mistakes," Raikkonen said when asked if it was possible to qualify on the front row.

"But in the last race we did pretty well as a team in qualifying and hopefully we felt a bit more comfortable to go in qualifying than ever before, especially at least me.

"Hopefully we have started to find the right direction to find those small details where we can be even more comfortable here and in the next few races."

Raikkonen reiterated his frustration at not having managed to win a race so far this year, but says he is not getting downbeat about it.

"We try and it is disappointing if you get second and you want to win, but it is not the end of life. We try again and we keep trying all the time. I don't get sad about it, but I am not happy because I would rather win than be second. But it is not going to destroy my life.

"I have done it before, so it is not something that I didn't achieve. We all want to win, and it will give us more points and make us better in the championships. It is not the happiest place to be second, but we still take it when it happens."

The Finn is sixth in the standings with 73 points, only 38 behind leader Fernando Alonso, but he says he is not thinking of the championship.

"I would rather treat it race by race and do as well as we can," he said. "There is still an awful long way to go and we see closer to the end of the season where we are. We are still not in the best possible position but we are not too bad.

"We just need to keep doing what we are doing, and try and avoid the bad races and hopefully we can keep ourselves there until the end of the season for it to be a possibility."

Sergio Perez believes he will be able to produce an improved qualifying performance for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, with Sauber making changes to solve the braking problems that have plagued him in recent sessions.

The Mexican was only able to qualify 15th on the grid for the last two races at Montreal and Valencia, with team-mate Kamui Kobayashi able to get into Q3 in Spain.

Perez feels the problems were down to the Sauber's brakes and believes the team have now sorted out the problem ahead of this weekend.

"I think qualifying has been quite bad in the last two races," he said at Silverstone.

"We've had fairly similar problems, so we've changed some of the stuff on the brakes to improve this.

"Even though Silverstone is a different track, with very low braking, it's still something we have to improve because we cannot afford another qualifying like we had in Valencia or Montreal. I'm very confident that this problem is sorted for this weekend."

Perez, who has won at Silverstone in British Formula 3 and GP2 in the past, believes that with a good qualifying performance he could challenge for the win.

"I think we've got a good car, so I think we are in a good position. I think we can fight for the victory and the podium at this track and that has to be our aim," he added.

Fernando Alonso says that in order for him to win theChampionship Ferrari will need to further improve the F2012, despite the progress in recent races.

The Spaniard took his second win of the season in the European Grand Prix and now leads the championship by 20 points.

Alonso, however, struggled in qualifying at Valencia and he said that there are a number of cars that are faster and that the priority must be to close the gap, although the gap is much closer than it was in Australia.

"We are quite happy now in terms of points because in terms of performance there are a few cars quicker than our car," he said.

"We have to be honest with ourselves now we know there are a few cars quicker and we need to close the gap in the next few races if we want to fight for the championship.

"We are in race nine of 20, so at the moment championship points are important, but it is not our main priority. The first thing is to improve the car," added Alonso.

Alonso is happy with the progress the team is making though, and thinks that Silverstone will suit the F2012.

"The job the team has done in the last three or four months, recovering 1.5 seconds that we were off the pace in Australia, so this is good news.

"Looking at the characteristics of the circuit Silverstone should be a bit better for us, suit our car characteristics a bit better.

"As we saw at the beginning of the year in high speed corners and at Mugello, the car was performing quite well. Hopefully we will see a good weekend for me and Felipe," he added.

Force India's Paul di Resta has confirmed he is no longer working with manager Anthony Hamilton.

The duo began working with each other two years ago, with Hamilton helping secure di Resta's entry into Formula 1 with Force India.

The Scot confirmed on Thursday ahead of the British Grand Prix they have parted ways though, with di Resta now just focusing on his racing,

"I think everything has been said. I can confirm we are not working together. That is the matter at the moment," said Di Resta.

"At the moment I am fully focused on my racing, at the end of the day it is results that count for me and that is what will drive me forward, we have had a good year up to now and aim is to carry that forward."

Di Resta enjoyed a good race last time out at Valencia, with a bold one-stop strategy producing a seventh place finish. However, he feels that a change of strategy could have seen him finish higher and hopes to replicate that form at Silverstone.

"I think Valencia was by far the strongest performance by the team and hopefully we can carry that into this weekend," he said.

"It [one-stop] is certainly a different approach, it starts quite early in the weekend, with what strategy guys come up with. I think our car performed well on low and high fuel in Valencia and in hindsight, we would do the race a bit different if we came back. Coming away with a double points finish, as a team we can be happy with that," he added.

Sebastian Vettel insists he does not think the safety car was necessary in the European Grand Prix, but denied saying it was deliberately deployed to erase his advantage.

The safety car was deployed during the Valencia race after a crash between Heikki Kovalainen and Jean-Eric Verne left debris on track.

At the time, Vettel had opened a big gap over his closest rival.

On Thursday, the Red Bull driver said he still believed the safety car was not necessary, although he accepted the stewards' decision.

"I never said it was deliberate," Vettel told reporters at Silverstone. "I said from my point of view it was not necessary. But I'm not making the decisions. The race direction is making that decision, they decide when it comes out. If they consider it to be necessary, we accept it.

"As usual, whatever [the media] makes out of it, and you leave important bits away, it becomes a different meaning."

He added: "I've had time to look again at the cause for the safety car, and we had pieces of debris on the track before, and nothing happened, then we had a couple more [pieces of debris]...

"But, it's not my decision. So I'm not saying the decision is right or wrong, in my opinion we could have continued racing without [the safety car]. But I had less overview at that moment than the race direction."

The German, who retired from the race soon after the safety car period, had enjoyed a dominant display until that point, having started from pole position.

Although Vettel conceded Red Bull had made a step forward in Valencia, he says he is hoping to confirm that this weekend at Silverstone.

"We have to be patient. We did make a step forward in Valencia, and I had a very straightforward weekend until that point, although Mark had a few reliability issues. I had a smooth weekend and race until the point of the failure.

"Everything seemed to have come together, everything worked. I think what we did to the car made the difference, and we need to confirm that here. It's a different track."

Mark Webber says he is relaxed about Red Bull's reliability, despite the issues that have hampered the team in recent races.

The Australian suffered hydraulic problems during the European Grand Prix weekend that meant he started from the back of grid, while team-mate Sebastian Vettel retired from the lead of the race after being hit by an alternator problem.

Webber insists however that he has no worries the problems will continue.

"I would've been concerned five or six years ago, but we weren't a world-class team then," said Webber ahead of the British Grand Prix.

"Now we are. These guys get their sh*t together pretty fast. I'm pretty relaxed. You've got to stay in the hunt to win. It is tight between lots of different people."

Although Vettel was putting on a dominant performance until his retirement, Webber does not believe Red Bull will be miles ahead of its rivals this weekend and in fact reckons McLaren is favourite for victory.

He does concede though that Red Bull took a step forward at Valencia.

"For sure, we could make the car slower in Valencia! It was a step in the right direction. We're not kidding ourselves we're going to drive away from the field. It was a good weekend for us," he said.

"McLaren are probably the favourites around here. But the form card is very hard to predict."

Jenson Button has no doubts that McLaren will be competitive at Silverstone this weekend despite fears that Red Bull's prodigious pace in the European Grand Prix.

Button expects the fast track configuration to play to the strengths of the McLaren MP4-27 and believes the developments Red Bull ran two weeks ago will not be so advantageous in the high-speed corners.

"At the last race, everyone was quite excited about how quick the Red Bull was," said Button. "Their pace was phenomenal.

"They had a big aerodynamic package and it worked in the low-speed corners. That's an area where it's very difficult to get a car working aerodynamically because we are so limited with blowing the rear diffuser.

"It is an area where we are lacking at the moment, but that shouldn't matter for us because it's a high-speed circuit and it's high-speed where the updates work for us."

While McLaren is confident about the upgrades for the British Grand Prix, Button insists that he does not expect to see a massive step forward.

Sporting director Sam Michael has confirmed that the update package is worth more than a tenth of a second, but Button is confident of the car's pace even in its pre-Silverstone configuration.

"We're seeing a step, but I don't think we're going to see a massive step," he said. "With the regulations being so limited aerodynamically, it's difficult to find a massive step like you could last year.

"But we do have a few bits aerodynamically and mechanically. There is some stuff which is very exciting so we have bits that should help us around here, but I think even without the extra bits we would have had a pretty good car around here."

Button added that he would be surprised to see Red Bull dominating in the same way that Sebastian Vettel did in Valencia.

"We were there [Valencia], but not here," he said when asked if he is alarmed by Red Bull's updates. "I don't think we'll see an advantage like we saw there."

Michael Schumacher believes the forecasted wet weather at the British Grand Prix could be a bonus for his team, as he bids for another podium finish.

Fresh from his top three finish in Valencia a fortnight ago, Schumacher believes that likely rain will be a help at Silverstone - with his Mercedes W03 not expected to be particularly well suited to the demands of the Northamptonshire circuit.

"It is certainly an opportunity, that is clear," said Schumacher about the prospect of rain. "It is more an opportunity than having a clear dry race for us.

"If we go back to Malaysia where it was wet, we didn't look too strong, but we understood the reasons for it as much as we understood in Australia in the dry race why we had not been strong. So it will be a good opportunity to prove ourselves – therefore I welcome a bit of rain at the right moment of time."

Although Schumacher seemed quite calm immediately after grabbing a podium in Valencia, the first since he returned to Formula 1, he was actually buzzing about the achievement when speaking about it on Thursday.

"Naturally after a certain [number of] unlucky races it was a nice boost for everybody, in particular for the boys who work on my car, to taste the champagne," he said.

"That is why I was not spraying too much around, because I wanted to leave some for the guys, and make them drink it rather than spray too much.

"It was a beautiful feeling, on top of the way it happened because for a third of the race we looked out of the points and not really in a position to have a decent result.

"Then things turned around and went in our favour, and the car was strong. The tyres held together, and at that point of time it was beautiful catching up and going forward step by step."

Thursday's press conference:

Drivers: Vitaly PETROV (Caterham), Romain GROSJEAN (Lotus), Bruno SENNA (Williams), Lewis HAMILTON (McLaren), Fernando ALONSO (Ferrari), Paul DI RESTA (Force India).

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q. Vitaly, your thoughts on the updates that the team brought to Valencia, where you ran very competitively, and I think you have more here as well.

Vitaly PETROV: Actually we bring not so many updates to Valencia, just front wing and, slightly, bodywork. But here, yes, we bring new back bodywork, new exhaust, some front wings and probably the rear wing, so we have quite a big update here.

Q. Where do you think that can bring you? Do you have any idea? Can you be in the points? That, obviously, has to be the major aim.

VP: First of all we need to see how these upgrades will work. This weekend we know the weather will be not fantastic it. It's a disappointment. Also our straight-line test, we didn't do much work because of heavy rain. But you know all the 24 cars are quite close to each other and quite competitive, so if we gain something definitely we will be, maybe, more competitive than in the last race. So I hope these upgrades will give us some good feedback and we can fight with the cars in front.

Q. Romain, first of all, congratulations on you marriage, week before last I think. In Valencia, you led the grand prix. People forget sometimes that you haven't been a front runner for long, that you haven't done that many grands prix. How exciting was that? And what did you learn from leading the race?

Romain GROSJEAN: Well, same position as Valencia, behind Fernando. It was a very good weekend, a very good grand prix. It's nice to be able to fight for the front with Lewis, Fernando with Sebastian Vettel, all the big guys. We have a car, which is very competitive, and the factory is doing a fantastic job. It's good to be here, good to be able to get a lot of experience by fighting with the big teams and the top drivers and hopefully at the next one we get a little bit more luck and I can got to first place.

Q. Do you feel you have made a lot of progress this year? Do you feel you have matured almost?

RG: I think you progress every time you're in the car. It's difficult with no testing to improve yourself so every race weekend you learn something new, in terms of set-up, in terms of driving, in terms of tyre management or whatever, and for sure when you fight at the front you learn even more than when you are at the back.

Q. Bruno, in a couple of weeks' time you're going to be picking up the Trofeo Bandini. What does it mean to you to have won that trophy?

Bruno SENNA: It's very special. You know that Lewis has taken it before, Seb and Nico. So there are quite a few drivers that are successful now have won this in the past, so it's very encouraging for me that they see potential in me - especially from last year as that was such a tough situation to be in. It's going to be a special event and I'm looking forward to being there.

Q. We can see that the Williams car this year has performance. But are you happy with it? Are there any issues you have with the car?

BS: Of course we're happy with it. It's difficult for a team to make such a leap from a difficult season [last year] as Williams has done. So it's very encouraging for us to have a car that is consistently in the points. On the other hand we always want more. We always want the car to be faster and faster, so we keep pushing the team and the team keeps pushing us to improve. We are always trying to find the magic button to make the car go faster than the other ones.

Q. Lewis, we saw in Valencia that Red Bull seem to be really quick, I don't think there's any disputing that, but have McLaren got an answer to that, because we see that they're bringing update to this race?

Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah, we definitely have some upgrades, so I'm really, really excited to see how they behave on the car and if they actually deliver what we think they're going to deliver. But whether or not... I don't know if it's as big as what they brought at the last race, but who knows. I think our car generally goes a little bit better on high-speed circuits than it does at low-speed circuits, so fingers crossed it will be a little bit stronger this weekend.

Q. You've had so many instances where you've been so close to scoring big points this season and Valencia to some extent was the same again. Are you still changing your attitude and working towards maximising on those sorts of race?

LH: I haven't changed anything from the beginning of the season – everything's still the same. Things don't always go according to plan, but that's life. I'm excited now that we have another race and that we have so many races ahead of us and that we still have plenty of opportunities to continue fighting for this championship and that's what racing is all about.

Q. Fernando, Spain have had a rollercoaster of various things: Nadal going out of Wimbledon, you winning in Valencia, Spain winning the European Championships – how has that effected you, or does it not affect you at all?

Fernando ALONSO: It's not affecting. You watch TV. Obviously I prefer Nadal wins and the Spain football team wins but it's not changing your preparation, so your approach for the next race. You are concentrated in your job, speaking with the team, doing some simulator work. You go to bed a little bit more happy or sad but nothing changes.

Q. You were a winner here last year, at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, won the last grand prix at Valencia as well – but two very different circuits I would have thought. How do you see your changes this weekend?

FA: Looking at the characteristics of the circuit, Silverstone should be a little bit better for us and suit our car characteristics a little bit better. As we saw at the beginning of the year in the high-speed corners and also as we saw in Mugello, that the car was performing quite well. Hopefully we see a good Ferrari here this weekend, with me and Felipe. And we see, I think, that it also all depends on the weather. We know that here anything can happen, or more rain than dry at times we will have, looking at the forecast, so we need to be ready for all: we need to be prepared for any track conditions at any time and try to have a smooth qualifying – and that will not be easy when the weather is changing, so you need to be in the right moment on the track to do the lap. And then the race, you know, straight to score as many points as possible – as I said, hopefully the car is performing well here.

Q. Paul, Valencia obviously not such a good qualifying but a reasonable race, I don't know how you would have looked at that. Really, can you improve on that?

Paul di RESTA: I think Valencia was by far our strongest performance as a team. You have to be relatively confident that hopefully you can carry that into this weekend. We had the potential to be much higher up in qualifying; a mistake in Q3 by me cost that. But we set ourselves quite a risky target in the race and achieved a one-stop strategy, the only car that did that. Obviously the safety car compromised us a lot, so not ideal, but the positive side is that we picked up points. And really that's key when you're a midfield team: to capitalise on those small points that are out there to get.

Q. When you do a one-stop strategy like that, what is it like for the driver? Are you holding yourself back all the time, is it frustrating?

PdR: I won't go into the details of it but it is certainly a different approach. It starts quite early on in the weekend with what your strategy guys come up with and obviously your setup drives you forward that way but I think our car performed well on low and high fuel in Valencia. It was just risky whether that worked. In hindsight, maybe we'd do the race a bit different if we went back – but certainly to come away with a double points finish for the team, we can be very happy. We both ended up doing different things.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q. (Frederic Ferret – L'Equipe) Question to Romain Grosjean, you prefer heat, just like your car, what do you expect this weekend with the rain?

RG: Well, we have to see. This track puts a lot of energy into the tyres so the heat shouldn't be a problem as it was in Canada, for example, but we have to see if it's raining or if it's dry – as Fernando says, take the best chance to get on track at the right time and try to analyse the weather forecast. It shouldn't be as bad as it has been on the cold conditions.

Q. (Simon Cass – Daily Mail) Question for Fernando and for Lewis, you've been extremely successful, both of you, in wet races over the last few years: between you I think you've won, could be half. Just tell me why you think that is, why you think you're so successful when conditions are like that and what extra demands it brings to a driver?

FA: I don't know really. I think it's a combination of factors, one will be for sure how competitive is your car. I think either Lewis or me, we've been normally lucky to drive in our career good cars and winning cars, so in dry and wet conditions, normally it's a help, for sure. And then I think it's the experience that you have and how many wet races you do. Probably with Lewis, racing here in the early categories it rains a lot, and it rains a lot in my region, in Spain. It normally rains a lot of the time, so same also with the experience. The first races I did in Formula One in wet conditions, ten years, eleven years ago, I make a lot of mistakes that now I try to avoid. So the more races you do, the better you feel.

LH: I don't really have anything else to add to that. I think it's just a mixture of things coming together on those races. I think we've been very fortunate, I would say, to drive for good teams and have good cars in those circumstances.

Q. (Ian Parkes – Press Association) Lewis, just following on from that, one of your best memories in Formula One, of course, was winning here in 2008. What was the secret to success that day because everybody else was spinning off but you won that race by over a minute?

LH: I really still don't know until today why we were so quick that weekend and didn't really have any problems at all during the race. I think I had one moment when I went straight on at Abbey, maybe, but otherwise it was quite a smooth race, and I really still don't know, today, why it all came together, but it was obviously a combination of what I was just commenting on: the tyres, the good pit stops, the good call strategies and maximising the grip on a track which I'd learned for a few years before I'd even got to know in Formula One, where that grip was and I was able to put it into play.

Q. (Gary Meenaghan – The National) I think, with the exception of one man, all five of you have lived in the UK at some point in your career. I was just wondering if you could talk a little bit about that, what it's like for a young ambitious driver growing up in the UK?

BS: Very wet.

PdiR: I think it is where home is. Obviously Lewis and I are from this country, it wasn't wet in Scotland, I don't think. I suppose there's no place like it. It's where your family is. I suppose memories: when you're a child, travelling all over the UK, taking part in many go-kart races. I wouldn't change it, I don't see why I should. It's got me to where I am at the moment.

LH: Generally, I think us Brits should be pretty good in the wet. I think a lot of my success in the wet has come down to a lot of the weather we have here. A lot of my races up in Scotland – Larkhall, Rowrah, all over the country – all the experiences I have had in karting, they have all contributed to the success that I have nowadays, so I'm quite grateful for the changeable conditions throughout my career and also grateful for good weather nowadays.

VP: I agree with what they said.

RG: Never lived here.

FA: My English is not very good, but in 2001 it was zero English. It was not an easy time. The supermarket was not easy.

Q. (Adam Scriven – Racing Post) Fernando, after a difficult winter for the team, you must be delighted with the season so far. How much better is the car now than it was then, and how much more improvement do you think there is to come?

FA: Yeah, we are definitely quite happy with the situation now in terms of points, at least, because in terms of performance we know that there are still a few cars quicker than our car, so we are still not completely happy but the job that the team has done over the last three or four months has been amazing, recovering the maybe 1.5s or something like that that we were off the pace in Australia. So this is good news, not only for this championship or for this moment, but also for the near future of the team, because we faced some difficult times with the wind tunnel correlation etc which was not the best, also for the next projects. Now, definitely, we are in a good direction. There is still a lot to come from the team in the next couple of races and in the next couple of months, in terms of performance in the car, so hopefully they work as they are working now.

Q. (Flavio Vanetti - Corriere Della Sera) Fernando, what is the value of the advantage that you have in the championship?

FA: I think that regarding the points, it's for sure not a situation that maybe we were expecting because leading the championship is good news for us, but we are also very honest with ourselves and as I said, now there are a few cars that are quicker than us at the moment and we need to close that gap in the next couple of races if we want to fight for the championship. If not, we know that sooner or later they will be in front, if we don't work better than the others. We are in race eight or nine of twenty, so at the moment championship positions or points are important but it's not our main priority. As I said, first thing is to improve the car.

Q. (Alan Baldwin – Reuters) Paul, what is the situation with your manager now, because I see reports about Lewis's Dad no longer working with you. Is that correct?

PdiR: I think everything's been said that has to be said. I confirm that we're not working together. I think it's been reported that we're no longer working together, so that is the matter at the moment.

Q. (Mike Doodson – Honorary) Romain, your first period in Formula One, a couple of years ago, didn't go too well, and only a few drivers actually get a second chance at Formula One but you did and now you're a strong candidate to become yet another winner this year. My question is: looking back, was it a mistake to come into Formula One at that time and take the risk of failing or did it help you this second time around?

RG: Let's turn it a different way: can you say no one gets a chance in Formula One. The answer is no so it was not a mistake, it was as it was and it was a good experience being with Fernando in the team, it taught me a lot and all the experience I got in 2009 is now in my pocket. I think then it was a little bit of a difficult time but I'm back today, very happy to be and very proud to be part of Lotus and everything I've learned is very important today.

Q. (Ian Parkes – Press Association) Paul, I appreciate you don't want to talk about the reasons behind your split with Anthony but can you at least explain what it means to you going forward now, whether you're looking at other options: a new manager and in particular bearing in mind that this is the time of year when a driver will look towards negotiating a new contract with other teams etc? How is that going to affect you now without a manager?

PdiR: At the moment I'm just fully focused on my racing. At the end of the day, it's the results that count for me and what's going to drive me forward. We've had a good year up until now. We need to continue that progress. The focus this weekend is to have a good race. It's obviously a big weekend for me to have a lot of friends and family around, a lot of support. Being one of the three Brits, I got a feeling for what it is like to have a country behind you at this venue, and the atmosphere is electric. Hopefully we can put on a good show for them and certainly encourage them to get out in their rain jackets because it looks like they're going to get wet.

Q. (Vanessa Ruiz – ESPN ) Romain, what are the latest updates you and the team have received about the engine failure (in Valencia) and also how does that affect the sense of reliability, because you had a big loss, you and Vettel, you were fighting relevant things like winning a race? And also, do you already know if the car had something to do with it, other parts of the car maybe, the way the car works? What is the news on that?

RG: Well, I think the best person to explain that will be the engineer at Renault Sport F1 but no, we have been trying to analyse what has happened. There are a few ideas on things that have been changed since the last race and hopefully it was a one shot experience that we are not going to have again. But on the other hand, it's the first time that we've had a reliability issue. It was a 'stupid' issue, not a big deal, so it should be sorted out by now, and we shouldn't have any more.

Q. (Frederic Ferret – L'Equipe) Romain, you said that you were fighting with big guys, with three World Champions. How far are you from them, what are you missing, what don't you have to be a winner?

RG: At least one World Championship. The more you race, the more you have experience. It's only my first complete season. I'm in a good team so I'm lucky to have a good car. I'm very pleased to fight at the front but in terms of results, I'm missing at least one World Championship.

Q. (Ian Parkes – Press Association) Bit of a sensitive question but to anyone who would like to answer: obviously we had the accident suffered by Maria de Villota on Tuesday, I'm sure you're all aware of that. Just your thoughts on that, first of all, if anyone would like to pass on any thoughts and secondly, obviously it was a straightline aero test. I'm sure you've all probably done that at some time in the past. Is there anything that can be learned from what Maria went through, going forward in terms of safety and that kind of thing?

FA: Obviously we are very worried for this situation because we are still waiting for some more news. We only know what you all know and there are still some difficult days until the situation is completely clear. The operation has passed completely etc. Sad days, for sure, completely shock when you hear the news and how what happened is possible. Obviously we don't know all the information it's difficult to talk about the reasons etc until we know the official version but at the moment, it's so difficult to imagine how this can happen. LH: I don't know her personally, but when I read about it I was absolutely devastated for her and for her family. I think it's very very tragic and myself and my team, we send on our warmest wishes her way and hope that she has a speedy recovery, hope that things get better.

Q. (Gary Meenaghan - The National) On a lighter note, when I look through the preview press releases, a lot of the drivers spoke about the fans in the UK being very knowledgeable. I was wondering if any of you can think of any interaction you've had with a fan here that made you really step back and think ‘wow, this person really knows what they're talking about'?

PdiR: I think something that is quite unique here is that a lot of the Formula One teams are based around this part of the country and based in Britain, the majority of them, and obviously you get a lot of factory staff, people that are involved in the manufacturing side, smaller companies that are involved, and it's nice to see the support and see that people are as dedicated to Formula One as they can be. It's a shame that obviously they can't get a bit closer to see the design work that they do but the support is well-respected by us.

Q. (Vanessa Ruiz – ESPN) Bruno, we heard that Williams are bringing a lot of updates. Pastor was saying earlier that he feels a lot of pressure because it's Williams's home race and there are the updates, and a lot of expectation also because he has already won a Grand Prix, so I wonder how you feel about it, and also if you could explain exactly what you're bringing here, because you've been testing it since Mugello, if I'm right?

BS: I feel really happy that we're bring updates because everybody else is also moving forward. We have a few bits and pieces. We have wings and pieces of the bodywork that will be different, so it's always hard to quantify how much that will improve the car, but every little helps as we've seen in Barcelona when Pastor won. There was a bit of an update there. So, for sure, it's going to be the case of trying to maximise the package but again, as Paul said before, the weather is very changeable here and that can mean everything or it can mean nothing. But for sure, it's the team's home race, we want to do well, it would be great to finish with both cars in good points-scoring positions. I think that listening to everybody here, everybody is very optimistic about their chances on this track because everybody seems to think that their cars should be well suited to this type of track so I guess we're going to see another tough weekend, very close battles. Hopefully we can score some good points from there. There is always pressure on a driver, pressure is there every single time we're in the car.

[Lineker]

Romain Grosjean was quickest as heavy rain hit the opening practice session for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

Conditions were wet from the outset, and steadily worsened. That meant that the 1m56.552s lap that Lotus driver Grosjean produced after 37 minutes proved to be the fastest anyone could manage all morning. Demonstrating how tricky the track was, Grosjean took to the grass at Becketts just after setting his benchmark time.

Daniel Ricciardo was among the initial pacesetters and remained second for Toro Rosso, 0.275 seconds behind Grosjean.

Lewis Hamilton led the home contingent for McLaren in third, followed by Sergio Perez's Sauber, Felipe Massa's Ferrari, and Red Bull driver Mark Webber, who also took several turns on top early on.

Although Kamui Kobayashi was only seventh in the times, he was among the most spectacular to watch on the wet track, managing to keep his Sauber on the road most of the time despite some slides. Team-mate Perez was one of several to have a harmless spin - although his incident could have collected Grosjean.

Marussia's Timo Glock and HRT test driver Dani Clos also looped their cars, but despite the conditions, everyone managed to avoid the barriers.

Unusually for a wet session, the majority of the field came out for some concerted running. Only the Force Indias and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso decided against flying laps.

FP1


Pos Driver                Team                    Time               Laps

 1. Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault           1m56.552s            13

 2. Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1m56.827s +  0.275   10

 3. Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes        1m57.174s +  0.622    6

 4. Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari          1m57.664s +  1.112   11

 5. Felipe Massa          Ferrari                 1m58.119s +  1.567    7

 6. Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault        1m58.463s +  1.911    7

 7. Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari          1m58.483s +  1.931   19

 8. Michael Schumacher    Mercedes                1m58.493s +  1.941   10

 9. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes                1m58.942s +  2.390    8

10. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1m59.076s +  2.524   12

11. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault        1m59.414s +  2.862   11

12. Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault        1m59.614s +  3.062    9

13. Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Renault        1m59.733s +  3.181    7

14. Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault        1m59.787s +  3.235   10

15. Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault        2m00.125s +  3.573    5

16. Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault           2m00.253s +  3.701    6

17. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes        2m01.834s +  5.282    6

18. Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth       2m01.835s +  5.283    6

19. Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth            2m04.341s +  7.789    9

20. Dani Clos             HRT-Cosworth            2m05.022s +  8.470   11

21. Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth       2m11.760s +  15.208   6

22. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                                       4

23. Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes                          3

24. Jules Bianchi         Force India-Mercedes                          1


All Timing Unofficial[/code]




Lewis Hamilton led the way in front of his home fans as the Silverstone weather got even worse in Friday afternoon practice for the British Grand Prix.



The combination of a sodden track and the limited number of wet and intermediate tyres permitted by the regulations meant it was only when the rain eased off in the second half of the session that drivers began work in earnest.



There was then a further delay when Bruno Senna aquaplaned into the barriers on the way out of the Becketts complex. The heavily-damaged Williams caused a 10-minute red flag period. Senna stepped out unhurt.



Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi was the initial pacesetter, as the Japanese driver showed the same flair that he had in the morning. But his 1m56.474s was then pipped by a 1m56.345s from McLaren driver Hamilton.



That was how the lead order stayed, with Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg moving into third and fourth for Mercedes, and Sergio Perez putting the second Sauber fifth. The Mexican subsequently had a big spin coming out of Woodcote.



Fernando Alonso also had a late incident in the Ferrari while trying intermediate tyres, smashing the car's new-spec front wing off on the barriers as he spun across the grass.



Although times were relatively meaningless in the conditions, Heikki Kovalainen's seventh place to Caterham was certainly noteworthy. The Finn was yet another man to go off the road, although his incident was limited to a messy trip through a big puddle in the grass.



[code]FP2


Pos  Driver                Team                   Time              Laps

 1.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes       1m56.345s            8

 2.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari         1m56.474s  + 0.129  15

 3.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes               1m56.545s  + 0.200  11

 4.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes               1m56.567s  + 0.222   9

 5.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari         1m57.493s  + 1.148  13

 6.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1m57.948s  + 1.603   9

 7.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault       1m58.580s  + 2.235  10

 8.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault          1m58.897s  + 2.552   8

 9.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes   1m58.943s  + 2.598  11

10.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                1m59.015s  + 2.670  14

11.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes   1m59.429s  + 3.084   9

12.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault       1m59.472s  + 3.127   6

13.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault       1m59.476s  + 3.131  10

14.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m59.854s  + 3.509   7

15.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari                2m00.565s  + 4.220   7

16.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth      2m00.820s  + 4.475  11

17.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault       2m01.099s  + 4.754   6

18.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault       2m01.348s  + 5.003  12

19.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth      2m03.719s  + 7.374   8

20.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth           2m04.774s  + 8.429   8

21.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault                               1

22.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari                          2

23.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault                            1

24.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth


All Timing Unofficial

Silverstone has 'strongly advised' fans holding public car park passes for the British Grand Prix to stay away on Saturday because of the on-going traffic chaos caused by unprecedented levels of rain.

While those who have pre-allocated park-and-ride passes will be able to attend as planned - as well as those already in camp sites or within walking distance - Silverstone managing director Richard Phillips warned that fans with public passes may be turned away.

The move has been made to protect the grass car parks in the hope that there will be no such restrictions in place for race day, after significant traffic problems on Friday led to many fans not being able to get into the circuit.

It is estimated that as many as 30,000 fans could be affected by this decision.

"We are strongly advising anyone with a public parking ticket not to come [on Saturday]," said Phillips.

"What we can do tomorrow is accept people that are in park and ride. People who are camping or who can walk in are fine. There are a lot of categories and paddock-ticketed people that go into the centre and will be fine to get in.

"There will come a point [tomorrow] - and that's why I am dissuading people now - where we will probably stop the traffic on the Dadford Road [the A43] and push them straight through past the circuit. And I don't want to do that.

"The people that didn't get in today, we are offering refunds to and anybody that doesn't get in tomorrow will get a refund."

Phillips blamed the problems that arose today on the rain, which led to grass car parks that had not been intended for use on Friday being opened.

With numerous vehicles unable to gain access to camp sites, the decision was taken not to use the car parks on Saturday so that they will be fit for Sunday.

"Yesterday, we had quite a good day with the sun shining," said Phillips. "The car parks were in a reasonable condition and we announced that we were going to go to an amber situation just in case and use the hard standing car parks if we could and keep off the grass.

"What happened today is with the rain also came a lot of campers that didn't come in yesterday. They didn't come in to camp because of the wet weather, they came in caravans and Winnebagos and couldn't get into the campsites as the campsites were waterlogged and wouldn't let them in. So they were being turned away.

"We tried to accommodate as many as we possibly could but the damage was started by then. We had to abandon just parking on hard standing because we just had to get traffic in as best we could.

"We broke into a lot of the grass car parks. As a result of that, we have basically lost 50 per cent of our parking."

Phillips underlined his hope that these measures would allow all those holding tickets for Sunday's race to attend, but could not guarantee that this would be the case.

"I am not sure at all," he said. "I would have to see where we are tomorrow and we may have to have another chat tomorrow about Sunday.

"At the moment we have to do our damndest to make sure that people that do come tomorrow are looked over the best we can and on Sunday hopefully everybody [will be]."

For further information if you are planning to travel to the British Grand Prix, visit www.silverstone.co.uk

Silverstone's organisers insist there are no question marks about the British Grand Prix going ahead as planned on Sunday, despite the major problems caused by the weather.

In light of the breakdown of the traffic system on Friday, caused by car parks and campsites getting washed out, British GP chiefs have already advised fans with public parking to stay away from qualifying day.

With further poor weather predicted over the weekend, and Jenson Button suggesting that the race could not go ahead if the rain was as bad on Sunday as it was on the opening day of practice, there is the possibility of the situation not improving by then.

But Silverstone's managing director Richard Phillips believed the circuit itself was holding up well to the challenges of the weather, and hoped that emergency measures being put in place on Saturday would help ease matters for the big day.

When asked if there was any threat to the circuit or the race going ahead, Phillips said: "No. It was a bit slippery out there today, maybe because of all that rain but there is pretty good drainage on the circuit and that goes into a different sort of system anyway. There is a big lake out there that is connected all around the circuit."

Phillips said that he had never known a situation like the one Silverstone has faced this year - even though the scenes were similar to what the venue experienced in 2000.

"I have been 30 years doing this," he explained. "I have had some interesting situations with fans being chased around in Italy by police, and fans rioting - but I have never had a weather situation quite like this one."

He added: "I wasn't here in 2000. I would say thank God, so this is my 2000 I guess... I am not sure they did enough planning in 2000. We did a lot of planning for this. And 40mm of rain in 12 hours is not easy to cope with."

Phillips suggested that the troubles Silverstone has faced in dealing with the traffic was proof of why the track had been looking for backers to help fund an improvement in facilities.

"This is why we have been looking for an investor for a long time to see if we can, you know... we've done what we can over the last 10 years to build the event up and I was very proud of it and I'm still very proud of it. But I am a bit sick today."

A clearly emotional Phillips also expressed deep regret to fans for what had happened.

"I unreservedly apologise to people," he said on Friday night. "I feel very responsible for it. This is something I have been very proud of over the years and I feel I could almost cry now."

Silverstone organisers have warned fans travelling to the British Grand Prix that they can expect further delays and have promised a full investigation into the traffic chaos that people trying to attend Friday's practice day were met with.

With large areas of the country under flood alert, and 80,000 fans expected to come to the circuit on Friday, huge tailbacks quickly built up on the A43 approach road to Silverstone and its surrounding routes as unprecedented levels of rain over the past few days rendered some campsites and car parks waterlogged.

The traffic problems were caused largely by Silverstone's official campsite, as well as privately owned ones, turning away large numbers of fans who had not booked in advance and returning them to the queuing traffic on Friday morning. This created a back up.

The delays led to many fans being forced to miss practice and spend hours waiting in their cars trying to get in the circuit.

"It's a nightmare," said Silverstone's head of communications Katie Tyler. "With the British Grand prix, we spend a lot more on traffic management, but even so, if you have a block with cars not being able to get to camping sites...."

"We know we've got a problem, we know it's serious," she added. "The problem is that the campers are turning up at their campsites and being turned away because of the ground. The farmers who own the private campsites and our own official one - Silverstone Woodlands - are saying; 'We can't take any more, we're going to relocate you.'

"Local radio and Silverstone radio are putting that message out, to say 'if you haven't booked, don't turn up.'"

The area surrounding Silverstone received 35mm of rain in 40 minutes on Wednesday, according to measurements taken by Turweston Aerodrome, and there are fears that some of Silverstone's 'soft' grass car parks may not be useable if the rain continues into the weekend.

"That [rain] threw everything out," said Tyler. "[silverstone's managing director] Richard Phillips said yesterday that we would be okay if we didn't get any more rain and then we got more today."

Organisers held an emergency meeting on Friday to discuss measures to try and contain the traffic problems and to ensure that fans trying to get in and out of the circuit later in the weekend could expect fewer problems.

"We've the best people on the job, and we're doing all we can, with people discussing what we do tonight and tomorrow," said Tyler. "One of the key decisions is getting the people waiting to get into campsites relocated, and then how we get the campers on to site tomorrow morning."

Asked whether fans could expect more problems over the weekend, Tyler said: "If we get more rain we have to be honest about it, it will be slow and there will be problems.

"The car parks we are using... we've loaded all the hardstanding car parks today but we have used some of the other car parks that aren't hardstanding that then may well be in a bad state tomorrow. So again we are looking at all sorts of alternatives for tomorrow.

"I don't know what the solutions have been decided yet. They are looking at hardstanding, and the park and ride is on tomorrow and Sunday. That does help. There is no park and ride operation on a Friday. So we are looking at other park and ride options."

Tyler explained that making park and ride available to fans on Friday had not been part of the plan, and is difficult to achieve during normal business hours around the area.

It is unclear whether Silverstone plans to reimburse fans with Friday tickets who could not get into the circuit to see the Formula 1 action, but Tyler said: "I can't say that, but I am sure it will have to be looked at and reviewed."

Tyler said there would be a full investigation into the problems Silverstone encountered on Friday. And she added that there was a sense of frustration from the organisers, having invested so much into traffic infrastructure since the venue's disastrous 2000 British Grand Prix when the event was brought to a virtual standstill through rain and mud.

"We need to look into all the factors and what we can do to minimise something like this happening again," she said. "Worst case scenarios are planned for, but at the end of the day we are surrounded by fields, and the cost of tarmacing the whole site is not feasible.

"What's so frustrating, that we'd almost got over the hangover of 2000. It seems we're about to go through it again, certainly with today happening."

Maria de Villota has undergone further surgery for her facial injuries after doctors were sufficiently happy with her progress to permit the operation.

Since the operation, her condition has improved and she is now serious but stable.

A Marussia team statement released on Friday night said the next phase of surgery on her injuries was successfully and promptly completed.

"Earlier today, Maria underwent further surgery at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge. This was a planned procedure that would depend upon the continued stability of Maria's head injuries, and this morning the medical team were sufficiently happy with her progress to allow the operation to go ahead," the statement said.

"Earlier today, the surgeons successfully completed the next phase of surgery required to address Maria's facial injuries. After the lengthy initial procedure, which commenced on Tuesday and concluded on Wednesday, today's secondary operation took significantly less time.

"Since the operation today, Maria's condition in relation to the head trauma she received has further improved, to the extent that she is now 'serious but stable'.

"Whilst Maria remains acutely ill, this confirms that she has been responding well to the treatment she has received since her accident. Coupled with the significant progress that has been made with regard to her facial injuries, we feel sufficiently comfortable to proceed with a further update.

"On a more personal note, we have taken a great deal of encouragement from today's developments and the rather more positive signs for Maria's family."

Red Bull Racing plans to begin talks to try and thrash out a new deal with Mark Webber in the next few weeks.

Although the Australian has been strongly linked with a move to Ferrari for 2013, on the back of his strong start to the campaign, Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner says he is relaxed about the prospects of reaching a fresh agreement with him.

"We're reaching that time of the year that we'll sit down and talk about the future," said Horner ahead of the British Grand Prix.

"With Mark, he's driving very well this year, I think his enthusiasm for Formula 1 is clearly there. I think he's in great shape, and he's delivering in the car, so we'll sit down over the next few weeks and start to talk about the future."

Webber has had a rolling one-year contract at Red Bull Racing for several seasons now, and has normally finalised his new deals over the summer breaks.

Speaking about his contractual situation at Silverstone, Webber would not provide any indication of what he intended to do - only that he was confident he would be in F1.

"I think the winter break was very good for me," explained the Australian. "My focus was to really enjoy the start of the season and get the most out of my driving again, which is clearly all in my hands with my motivation and level of spirit towards the job, and also towards the guys [in the team].

"I'm really, really enjoying my work. For next year? Yeah, there's a pretty decent chance I'll be racing in Formula 1."

Felipe Massa thinks it is only a matter of time before he is able to deliver the results that he hopes will secure him a future at Ferrari.

Although recent races have not gone his way - with a spin in Canada and a damaged car in Valencia costing him positions – the Brazilian believes he has been building good momentum since set-up changes in Monaco transformed his campaign.

When asked at Silverstone how he felt about his future chances of staying at Ferrari, Massa said: "I don't know, to be honest. I think the only thing I know and the only thing I care of is to make everything right and to finish the race in a position I should finish, even if in the last race I didn't finish where I expected to finish.

"I was very strong, very happy with the car in the last race, even if I was not very lucky because on lap seven of the race I had a problem with the floor of my car and I lost a lot of downforce.

"The numbers of downforce I lost, it was like one second slower each lap, so it was a big thing, even if people do not want to believe it.

"That compromised my race, and then somebody didn't see my car and crashed in to me. But the problems started before and it was a race where I was so confident, so happy with the car and I am sure I could fight for the podium.

"We just need to put things together and I think if we put things together the results will come. I am sure that with the right result, it will be much easier for the future."

Massa feels that he has been getting stronger since the Monaco GP upturn in form, and sees no reason why he cannot do well in Silverstone this weekend.

"I think Monaco we were able to finish where we were supposed to. In Canada not, but Canada was also very strong. But there I made a stupid spin.

"I still don't know why I spun there. I was not trying to brake later or anything, I just hit a kerb and I spun. So, in Spain it was what I just said, it was good.

"I feel that the car is getting better. Things are getting better. I am getting stronger race-by-race as well, so we just need to put things together and things will be better."

Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner insists his team should not be singled out as the 'scapegoats' in blocking moves to cut costs in Formula 1 - as he said that all he wants to do is make sure other outfits are not given an unfair advantage.

Although ten of the current teams agreed plans for the FIA to get involved in policing a Resource Restriction Agreement before a June 30 deadline laid down by the governing body, AUTOSPORT understands that both Red Bull Racing and sister team Scuderia Toro Rosso objected because they wanted the scope of any cost plan to include engines.

That stance has left Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso as the lone objectors, but Horner insists that it would be unfair if it allowed the RRA to go through as it currently is.

"It's very easy to portray Red Bull as the blocker or the scapegoat, but all we want is to ensure that we're not disadvantaged through the process," said Horner, when asked by AUTOSPORT about the reasons behind Red Bull's objections.

"We are just a race team: we do not manufacture road cars, we don't manufacture other automotive technologies, we don't manufacture Formula 1 engines. We just want to make sure that whatever is agreed going forward is balanced.

"There are fundamental things that can happen for 2013 if unanimous agreement is reached: for example the wind-tunnel would be a very easy one for all teams to agree, but again we don't appear to have unanimous agreement on that either at the moment."

Horner believes it is up to other teams to make compromises in the plans they are proposing if unanimous agreement is to be found. In theory, support from all teams is now the only way that rules can be changed - although the FIA has still left the door open on sporting regulation changes until July 24.

"I think that where we are with it at the moment, it is unacceptable," said Horner. "We are still to be convinced and we are talking on certain things like limiting of wind tunnels significantly.

"We were willing to do that and look at other cost drivers to significantly get the cost down, as I think the biggest cost burden coming up is the 2014 power train, and that is where the teams and the manufacturers need to make a decision quite quickly because 2014 is just around the corner."

Despite Horner's stance, Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn was still hopeful that a deal could be put in place for the rule changes to be voted through unanimously.

"What is trying to be achieved is let's resolve those issues that the teams which are disagreeing have, so we can all agree," he said. "And if we all agree then it can happen in 2013, rather than it being a proposal that we get through by the end of June that two teams are unhappy with and may choose to challenge, even if we follow the right procedures."

Horner reckoned that a solution was possible – but it had to be fair to every team.

"I think what you have to remember with the RRA is it only really affects four teams and, whilst we fully agree with cost cutting and control, what we are keen to see is that those four teams with different financial make ups are treated in a like for like manner."

Lewis Hamilton's Valencia race engine has been given the all-clear, following successful tests carried out by his McLaren team on Friday.

McLaren had been worried that the engine had suffered damage in Hamilton's late-race crash in the European Grand Prix, when a broken radiator meant the power unit lost pressure.

With Formula 1's rules meaning that the only way to test the engine is on track, McLaren elected to evaluate it in FP1 at Silverstone to give it the all-clear to be able to complete a race later in the campaign.

McLaren technical director Paddy Lowe said: "We were running Lewis' Valencia engine just to check it out.

"As you know the engine gets sealed with an exhaust plate because he had a punctured radiator in the shunt in Valencia and we lost pressure, so we needed to get some mileage on that engine and check it was okay, as it is still a prime race engine. Though not for this race weekend.

"The engine is fine. They will do some further analysis back at base, but we got enough laps this morning for them to get the data they needed."

Although there was good news on the engine front, Lowe admitted that McLaren may need to delay the introduction of some of its latest updates because the lack of mileage completed on the wet Friday meant they could not be evaluated properly.

"With this weather you cannot get the mileage on some things, as there is a certain discipline needed to make sure that some things are reliable for the race," he said.

"It is not just a mileage problem in the wet, but you are not putting it through the right duties, so that is a bit of a blow in that respect. There are some things that we can carry forward, and some things we may have to say it is too much of a risk."

McLaren has introduced a number of updates for the Silverstone weekend, including a revised front wing and adjustable front brake ducts - which will help the team alter their temperature in the race to help boost control of the front tyre temperatures.

Jenson Button said he would be concerned about racing in conditions as bad as those the Formula 1 field experienced during Friday's practice sessions for the British Grand Prix.

Both Silverstone practice sessions were rain-affected, and McLaren driver Button said the level of standing water in places was difficult to safely navigate.

"It's tricky out there, it really is," he said. "There's a lot of standing water. When you watch the GP2s you realise just how much standing water there is, there are a lot of people facing the wrong way.

"In the race, you wouldn't want to be racing in those conditions wheel to wheel, because you can't see the aquaplaning until you arrive, so its treacherous conditions."

Williams's Bruno Senna had a heavy accident on the exit of the Becketts section, and Button said this was one of the particularly treacherous areas.

"One of the worst ones is down the Hangar Straight before Stowe, you're doing 290km/h before you cross a river that gives you wheelspin," he said. "When you get wheelspin at that speed in an F1 car, it can snap very easily, and that's the scariest place.

"And probably coming onto the Hangar straight, you had a lot of standing water where Senna crashed, so it's tricky out there and when you're a car on your own, it's not so bad and you can pick your way around, you can lift off where you want, but in race conditions you can't do that.

"So I hope it's not like this on Sunday, hopefully there's not as much standing water."

Button's McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton was fastest in the afternoon, and felt the circuit authorities could improve the track's drainage.

"There's lots of aquaplaning here, there's lots of standing water," he said. "It's raining a lot, so it's to be expected. In some areas particularly more so than others, where there doesn't seem to be enough drainage, so that's just an improvement we can make for next year."

Mark Webber says he felt for the fans at Silverstone on Friday after adverse weather let to severely restricted programmes along the pitlane.

Webber said he could sympathise with fans' frustrations about each team's running time, but said F1 team's had their "hands tied" by the conditions.

"It is horrible," Webber said when asked about the fans. "They don't always understand why we don't run, especially when the conditions are going to be pretty similar over the weekend.

"Today though most of us had our hands tied with the weather. We would want to get the practice in to get on top of those conditions, but for us unfortunately there is no point being top of the pops today, doing loads of mileage, loads of wearing tyres out because we don't get any points today.

"It is very frustrating for the fans and we do feel for them."

Webber said the fact rain is expected to continue on Saturday and Sunday actually worsened the situation because it means teams have to think about preserving tyres.

"It wasn't the best day for the fans, [but] we have to have one eye on the tyres a little bit for the rest of the weekend. If the weather was dry for Saturday and Sunday we could do more mileage today, but there is a good chance we might need all the tyres so we have to be careful with how many laps you can do."

Webber added that he would support a change in the rule restricting the number of sets of each tyre available each weekend in order to avoid similar problems at future events.

"If the whole weekend is wet, which can happen here and at Spa or a few other places, there you can have not a lot of tyres in your drawer," he explained.

"We have enough to get through Saturday and Sunday, but we cannot get too aggressive with those on a Friday.

"Today we all feel, all the teams, drivers, engineers, mechanics, we all feel for the fans. It is cold and miserable, it is the middle of the summer, it has been a very, very tough day for everybody and it is just incredibly frustrating because they did not get to see what they would have liked to have seen.

"I just really, really hope a lot of them are back tomorrow, [when] we have no choice. We have to get serious tomorrow and get on with it."

HRT has confirmed it will carry out its young driver test at Silverstone next week with Chinese driver Ma Qing Hua.

Formula 1 teams had failed to reach agreement for a single venue for the test, and only HRT, Williams and Marussia were believed to have plans to run at Silverstone while the rest of the squads test in Abu Dhabi at the end of the season.

HRT confirmed it on the Friday of the British Grand Prix that it will run at the British track on Thursday and Friday next week.

"The fact that these tests will finally be able to take place at Silverstone is great news for us because it fits perfectly with the next step that we had planned for Ma Qing Hua's development programme," said team boss Luis Perez-Sala.

"In the last three months, we've been working with Ma on different aspects: testing on track with cars from different categories, carrying out tests on the simulator and working on specific physical preparation to be better prepared for this demanding challenge.

"We were aware of his ability but, once more, he has shown his professionalism, attitude and sensitivity, so we're sure that he will continue to progress as a driver in these Formula 1 tests."

Pirelli believes there is no simple solution to the problem of drivers not running in wet practice sessions, after the lack of action on Friday at the British Grand Prix left Formula 1 teams, drivers and fans frustrated.

Few drivers wanted to put mileage on their wet tyres at Silverstone in case the rubber is needed for both qualifying and the race - with F1's regulations allowing only three sets of full wet tyres for the whole weekend.

Although there were suggestions that a rule change to allow teams to swap a used wet set for a new one on Saturday - as teams can do with intermediates - would have led to more running, Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery is sceptical that it would improve matters.

He reckons that not only could teams have happily completed all the mileage they wanted on the wet tyres – because of their long life – he does not think even teams getting an effective free set of wet tyres would have made much difference.

"The wets are designed to do 60 laps each, so you cannot say you haven't got enough tyres, you've got enough tyres to do 180 laps," explained Hembery.

"If you are saying that it disadvantages you if your competitor doesn't go out, and I want to follow suit, then that is a slightly different challenge isn't it? It is a little bit more complicated than saying they don't have enough tyres.

"If they had six sets today would they have gone out more? And how many three-day wet events have we had? One in five years, it's something like that. So do you go and spend half a million to one million Euros a year to cover an eventuality that happens once every five years?"

Hembery thinks the bad conditions at Silverstone, with downpours at numerous points of the day, contributed as much to the lack of running as the tyre situation.

"You don't want to have 80,000 people with cars that are not running, but you have to ask yourself what would people have done with more tyres?" he said. "Would they have done 25 laps each in the rain? Only the teams can answer if they would really do it.

"Some teams did more laps today and they said it was pretty pointless because conditions were so bad. I think it is maybe convenient to blame the tyre quantities from that point of view. But would [more tyres] have changed what they did today greatly? A little bit? Maybe. Hugely? Probably not.

"Why would you run in conditions that could maybe create an off? You might also have been waiting for the best conditions. You might have been waiting for the last half an hour of FP2. So why go out when full rain at the start? There are many, many factors involved. Saying it is not enough tyres is not as simple as it seems."

Hembery says the bigger concern for Pirelli with the regulations is the fact that a whole wet day of running means that his company now has to scrap the unused slicks from the day.

"Today we have to strip and scrap 200 slick tyres that were unused. There are cost elements. The sport is asking about cost reductions, but we are also a business and we have costs as well."

Nico Rosberg would be happy for the wet conditions to continue over the British Grand Prix weekend after making good progress during Friday practice.

The Mercedes driver ended this afternoon's second free practice session fourth, two tenths off pacesetter Lewis Hamilton's time and one slot behind team-mate Michael Schumacher.

He believes that the step forward made by the team between the morning and the afternoon proves that the team is moving in the right direction.

"Our car seems to be alright, so from my point of view it can rain," said Rosberg. "In general, it was a good day and very productive.

"We improved the car a lot from this morning and for similar conditions it was a lot quicker, so I'm quite pleased with that. So it can rain tomorrow, no problem."

Schumacher was satisfied with the running done and said he was pleased that at least the conditions were consistent throughout the session.

"We had reasonably consistent conditions. There was too much water on the circuit [at first in FP2] but finally it was okay to run. Even though it was tricky, it's okay in terms of you get used to the track because it [rain] might happen on Sunday."

Mercedes has revealed that it is bucking the traditional push to prioritise aerodynamic improvements to its car - because it believes there is a bigger benefit to be had from better tyre management.

While its major rivals – including McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull Racing – have all brought a series of big aero updates over the last few races, Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn says his team has put attention instead on other facets of its car.

"We have been focusing on tyre usage, tyre management and tyre control, and things related to that," he said ahead of the British Grand Prix.

"It has become clear that there is no doubt pure aero downforce helps, but given some of the disparity between lap times of the cars, it is less significant than using the tyres properly.

"So we have done quite a lot of work on the variables that we can control with regard to the tyres. This could be quite a challenging weekend with the weather, so getting the tyres working in cold conditions and getting the wets to work properly is we think a vital part of the weekend."

Brawn thinks that the nature of the season, with the battle at the front of the field closer than it has been for years and tyres playing such an important role, means that the 2012 development race will not be as usual this year.

"The developments are of a different nature," he said. "Perhaps in previous years it has been a simple equation of let's find some more downforce, let's have less drag and some more efficiency, and you always go faster. But this year, if that is not of the right characteristics, you may find the benefits are not so good.

"To perhaps give you a pointer, in qualifying in Valencia it was incredibly close with I don't know how many cars within a couple of tenths of a second – and it is highly unlikely that all those cars had the same downforce.

"So there are other parameters which are coming into force, which we have to understand and we have to find ways of unlocking.

"I think the development will be critical, but it will perhaps develop in different ways – maybe with suspension geometry. Perhaps how you manage tyre temperature and other factors will come into play, other than perhaps the traditional ones we have had in previous years."

Vitaly Petrov is certain that a new upgrade package for the British Grand Prix has significantly boosted the performance of the Caterham CT01.

The Russian admitted that wet conditions in Silverstone practice made it difficult to judge the outright performance gain, but was certain that the overall downforce level of the car has been increased.

The new package includes modified exhausts and sidepods, with a new radiator exit, as well as a new engine cover and tweaks to both the floor and the front wing.

"The weather disturbed our plan a little bit because we had a lot of parts to try, but we can definitely see a big improvement from the package," said Petrov when asked by AUTOSPORT for his impression of the updates.

"You can feel that there is much more downforce and now we need to change the car a bit to suit this configuration."

Petrov, who ran with the car in its previous specification in the morning session to allow a comparison with the updated sister car of Heikki Kovalainen but switched in the afternoon, is hopeful that there will be dry running on Saturday morning to allow the team to gather definitive data.

"Today we were careful and we didn't want to push to the maximum, but tomorrow from P3 we will push as much as we can and see what this configuration has given to us," he said.

"It's important to have a dry day because you need to [see where you are compared to] the teams in front.

"In the rain, it's very difficult to compare. Heikki was P8 so let's see what happens tomorrow. [Toro Rosso driver Daniel] Ricciardo was in the top five in P1, so you never know. In the dry, it's easier to see."

Petrov added that it was "definite" that the team would continue to run the cars in updated specification for the rest of the weekend.

Friday's press conference:

TEAM REPRESENTATIVES - Bob FEARNLEY (Force India), Rob WHITE (Renault Sport), Mark GILLAN (Williams), Pat FRY (Ferrari), Adrian NEWEY (Red Bull Racing), James ALLISON (Lotus).

Q. A question for you all first. Tell us about what sort of upgrades you've brought here? Have you been able to test them? Have you had anything conclusive from them? Are you going to carrying on using them for the rest of the weekend or have you not been able to evaluate them? Bob, if you'd like to start.

Bob FEARNLEY: Ours are just mainly small aero changes, nothing significant. We haven't been able to fully track evaluate them but we will continue to run with them.

Q. Rob, does this apply to you or not?

Rob WHITE: We're not in upgrade mode at the moment. We're more in short-term countermeasures, following the incidents we had in Valencia, so it doesn't really apply to us.

Q. Mark?

Mark GILLAN: Similar to Bob. Basically, with the weather conditions we've not been able to look at the updates but we will do tomorrow, weather permitting.

Q. I was told that they weren't on Bruno's car today.

MG: No, they weren't.

Q. How very wise. Presumably just because of the conditions?

MG: Yes, purely because of the heavy wet conditions we thought it prudent to leave them off.

Q. Pat?

Pat FRY: I think we, like most people, have a few little updates all over the car but with these conditions it's impossible to do any sensible evaluation of it. We need to see what we can do tomorrow, if anything, and then try to make the right choice for qualifying and the race.

Q. Adrian, more for you after Valencia?

Adrian NEWEY: Yes, a big upgrade in Valencia, here very small stuff, but as everybody else says impossible to evaluate them in these conditions.

Q. James?

James ALLISON: We've got two or three things that are all fitted. We didn't back-to-back them but they don't seem to be misbehaving. The only bit we were able to test sensibly was some changes to our pit stop equipment and they seemed to go OK.

Q. Rob, we know it was an alternator problem in Valencia, can you say what the problem was? Have you managed to cure it?

RW: A bit of background if you will. The first thing to say was that there wasn't any change underway that went pear-shaped. The spec was something that has been stable for quite a long time – some years – apart from little details in the piece that actually broke. Both Sebastian's car and Romain's car stopped on the track following the alternator failure. Clearly the alternator generates all the electricity on the car. Without electric power the car stops very quickly. Some small differences in the exact sequence of events after the failure and before the cars stopped were incidental. The failure was due to overheating. Overheating from within the piece, not from outside the piece. I guess we didn't at the time know all of that. We wanted to find out if we were outside our experience. It turned out that we weren't. We wanted to find out whether there was anything unusual relative to our recommended operating conditions. The truth of the matter is that both of the teams were completely within the recommendations we had previously made. We had to look deeper. We had to challenge ourselves on whether the recommendations we made were the right ones. We were able to find places where, with hindsight, we were at risk. We found some conditions where we felt we might have pushed the piece beyond its comfort zone and that's where we've had to focus our attention for this week. A very small amount of time to react. Without any great surprise, we don't have a magic wand to wave that will make all the trouble go away, so we've had to deal with it in a fairly classic way. We tried to make the conditions less severe for the piece, so we've tried to reduce the electrical load on the car, settings on the car, on the engine. We've tried to improve the electrical generation in the most marginal conditions, which are typically at low engine speed and then we've tried to select within the population of existing pieces the ones that will give us the best chance of succeeding. Thos selection criteria are based on electrical behaviour and then for the avoidance of doubt, classic quality [control] type criteria to eliminate the batch numbers we had a problem with. All of that goes in the right direction. It would be unjust to say that I'm 100 per cent confident we have done enough. We've had great support from Red Bull and Lotus who suffered the failures and from Williams and Caterham who didn't but have identical pieces on the car. Also from all the suppliers in the supply chain. We've got what is obviously a short-term plan for this weekend and in parallel we've got a longer-term look to see if we can do a more robust job for the future.

Q. Continuing on with that, what have the two teams been able to do to help Renault with the cooling? James?

JA: We just work with Renault Sport. Most of the action is happening in Viry. But we try to provide help and support with the tests that happen in Viry. There were certain bits of our car kit that were necessary to go to Viry to form part of that testing chain. So we all just muck in together and try to get it fixed.

Q. Are you able to provide more cooling to that part, to that area?

JA: Yeah, you can blow air on it.

Q. Adrian?

AN: Same really. It's a component failure that we'll work together to get on top of.

Q. Bob, we've seen quite a change for you from Canada to Valencia. What in fact has changed for the team?

BF: Nothing has really changed. We just made a mistake in Canada really with our settings and went the wrong way, so it was an error from our side, on the engineering side. We corrected that for Valencia. We should have had the same result in Canada as we did in Valencia really.

Q. Are you quite confident for this weekend then, in the right conditions?

BF: This is a different test. We have moved to more of an aero circuit. Hopefully, the answer is yes but until we get a bit of dry running we won't know.

Q. Mark, you've got a good car and we're seeing it in the points quite frequently. At what stage do you stop developing it and move on to next year's car? Is there a tipping point at some stage?

MG: I think the competition this year is so fierce and everything is extremely tight, as we saw in Valencia, as a team we need to continue to push. There is a point, as you say, where you have to balance next year's car's development and obviously with an eye even further into the future with the 2014 car, which is a big departure. But we are really keen to maximise the performance of this year's car and make the most of this opportunity.

Q. And actually you're already looking at the 2014 car?

MG: Yeah, it's a big departure and working alongside partners in terms of development of the car and obviously that's something that sits quite aside from next year's car which is really a continuation of the theme from this year.

Q. Pat, yesterday we mentioned to Fernando Alonso, how he won here last year, how he won in Valencia. Two very different circuits. Is that how you see it from an engineering point of view?

PF: I think they are completely different circuits. Here there are more high-speed corners, more aero I guess. It will be interesting if it's dry to see how the performance is. I think we're fairly realistic. We still have a lot of work to do to catch up. We're trying to do as much as we can, as quickly as we can, exactly the same as any other team.

Q. We've seen Felipe bounce back in the last few races. What have you done to help him, what more can you do?

PF: Certainly from Monaco onwards he's done a great job. We changed the car a little bit and we found something that suits him slightly better and that's brought the best out of him. Today he was looking pretty reasonable until the red flag.

Q. Adrian, we saw what seemed to be a phenomenal effort with the upgrade in Valencia. Interesting that you brought it there rather than here as everybody else has. Give us some idea of the thinking behind such a big upgrade all at once and what sort of effort it took from the factory to bring that upgrade?

AN: Well, the upgrade was a new sidepod and exhaust, so I think it's been a bit exaggerated how big the change really is. It's a fairly big visual change but a less big engineering change. I would regard it as part of the routine development. In terms of the performance it brings, well because it's a big cosmetic change everybody focuses on it. You could perhaps make a small change to a diffuser or a front wing endplate that might be just as big a performance difference but nobody will spot it. Well, the teams will spot it but the press won't so much let's say. The problem is this season it's difficult to see much form, as much as we had a similar benefit or advantage in Bahrain as we had in Bahrain but then that can swing to the other way round at other circuits. It's a very difficult season to read so far.

Q. Because the pace in Valencia was phenomenal. You were certainly going to win that race.

AN: Yes, we would have wont he race for sure, but that's the ifs and buts of motor racing.

Q. James, just going back to the alternator. How was it you had a problem with one car and not the other?

JA: I think it's probably just that the alternator was very near to the limit of what it could do. There's always a scattering components and one fell just the wrong side of the line. Rob's probably got more of an insight into that than I have but we weren't operating any differently.

Q. Looking at Romain Grosjean how has his performance changed so far. You've had nine races now with him so far, we're almost at mid-season. Have you seen him mature over the year?

JA: I think he's gathered confidence as the season has gone on but if you go right back to the first running in pre-season he was quite quick right from the off. He probably took a couple of long runs in pre-season to get a handle on how to look after the tyres over a stint, but he's been pretty useful right from the outset. He's just had a bit of misfortune at the starts in a few races. But that seems to be going more his way now. He's very pleased with how his season is going and we're pleased for him and with him.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q. (Sam Collins – RaceCar Engineering) I've mentioned this to one of you guys before this weekend already; at the moment the weight distribution of the cars is fixed in quite a small window. Is that something you'd like to see changed, going forward in 2013 into 2014 as well?

AN: First of all, it puts an emphasis on light drivers, which is, as long as we're in a situation where we don't have ballasted seats... for instance, with Mark Webber, we have a driver who's on the heavier end, compared to Sebastian. That means he has less freedom on weight distribution. The obvious solution to that would be that drivers have to carry ballast on the side of their seat but that's something that has been discussed and it hasn't happened so far. It really means that if you make the wrong move, you're locked into it for a while, so I don't have a firm opinion on this. It's one less variable in a way but on the same for everybody type basis, I'm not too worried about it, one way or the other.

JA: I think the rules are the way they are because we, the teams, keep voting them that way, so we can't do much other than say 'well, that's what we asked for'. We've voted for this several years running now and each time we've done it, I think it's more or less been on the basis that Adrian just alluded to, that it's one fewer thing to worry about. You know if the weight's all in one little window that you're not going to get completely screwed by someone getting it right just by good fortune or by good judgement. So we keep voting for it, I guess, because it's a safer thing for an individual team to have.

PF: It's just one less variable, isn't it? I don't mind if we've got it or not. It's just one thing less to worry about.

MG: It's obviously a relatively small window compared to historically what we've been able to do but as James said, we all voted for it and we continue to vote for it so everybody's got the same limitations.

Q. (Naoise Holohan – ManipeF1) There was a big effort in this year's regulations to eliminate exhaust-blown diffusers, but I think it's pretty widely known that that technology has returned this year already. How big a development area is it compared to last year and are we heading for the same uncertainty as we had last year in terms of its legality or not?

AN: I don't think so. I think that the fact is that the cars have to have exhausts and they will always have an aerodynamic influence so what we are really talking about is is that a small aerodynamic influence or is it a very large one? Compared to last year, we have a fraction of the effect that we had so I think it's not an area of zero development, they still make a difference, but in terms of the gains we're able to make compared to what we had last year then it's a fraction, so I think it's a fairly sensible place to be perfectly honest.

Q. (Dieter Rencken – The Citizen) To Bob Fernley, as team principal, today you did very little running this morning in particular, certainly nothing in anger. I would assume that's because of the limitation of wet weather tyres for the weekend; you don't know how much running you'll do. If one looks at the cost that spectators have paid plus some of them spent five hours in traffic trying to get here, is it really fair on them and is there any solution that you can think of to improve the spectacle under such circumstances?

BF: Not really, Dieter. As a team, we obviously feel very very guilty that we're not out there running for the spectators but on the other hand, we don't gain anything from it. With all due respect, even if we'd had the tyres we wouldn't have run, because the risk to reward is the wrong ratio for us, and it was more of a precautious programme than it is by taking unnecessary risks.

Q. (Kate Walker – Girl Racer) On the subject of the limited running that we saw today, do you guys have any messages of sympathy and support for the fans, some of whom weren't actually able to get to the circuit before the last F1 car left it?

BF: The answer's yes, we have terrible guilt for the fans in not running, but what happened in terms of them being able to get into the circuit, obviously I'm not aware of, because I didn't even know there was a problem to be honest with you. We've just been working ourselves. If they have had problems, obviously we sympathise with them and I'm sure that's something to do with traffic management of the circuit or something like that that needs to be resolved. It's not something from the teams, the teams can only try and put the cars out on the circuit and give the spectacle and I regret today that we couldn't do that. As I say, it's more to do with our side of it in terms of the risk and the benefit and are we going to learn anything? Until the last half an hour of today, there wasn't any benefit in running.

JA: I think it's a shame that the fans don't see as much as they hoped to come and see but that's British weather for you. I was actually (thinking that) considering how crap the weather was today, there was actually a reasonable amount of running on the track, more than maybe we might have anticipated looking at the forecast this morning, but it would have been nicer if there had been more had the weather been better, but it wasn't.

Q. (Edd Straw – Autosport) Adrian, looking at the way that Red Bull Racing has developed over the years from a midfield-towards-the-back team to a front-running team, since the initial recruitment drive when you brought in a lot of people, how important has the continuity and the stability of the team in all areas been in both achieving the level of success and sustaining race-winning performances over the last few years and presumably, you'd hope, over the coming years?

AN: Yeah, continuity is hugely important. Really, Red Bull Racing is a team that first raced in 2005 and in truth that was a Jaguar painted blue. Then it had a steep learning curve of developing the culture; as you say, quite a lot of new people joining, some people from the Jaguar days choosing to leave, so it was a period of quite rapid change and that took time to settle down, if you like, and to develop a way of working, a culture, an ethos, to develop some of the bigger tools, be it developing the wind tunnel, developing simulation… things that you can't just go to Argos and buy. It takes some time to develop those from scratch which is what we were doing and to learn how to use them, how to work with them. Once you got to that stage, as you say, continuity becomes very important. People have learned to work with each other and it's then making that an ever tighter-knit group and trying to maintain that, as the team continues to grow – it's been flat for the last couple of years in numbers, as a result of the RRA which I think is a very good thing. But it's an evolutionary thing which, I think, took us three or four years to settle down into and really the big regulation change in 2009 was good timing for us, because that coincided with the point where we had started to gel together.

Q. (Dieter Rencken – The Citizen) To the technical directors: I believe that there are still a lot of elements open on the 2014 regulations, particular those that appertain to the chassis. At which stage would you need to have a firm set of regulations for your 2014 cars?

PF: I think that for 2014 we need to start deciding the exact engine operating conditions or power unit or braking conditions. There's a lot of work involved there, and some of the chassis rules will have a big bearing on that. We need to have that firmed up fairly soon, really, for the engine side of things. The chassis can follow later.

Q. (Naoise Holohan – ManipeF1) Rob, what's the stage of the Renault development for 2014? How far along are you in terms of dyno testing or have you put it on the dyno yet?

RW: Clearly, the 2014 power unit is important to Renault and the project planning is well under way. The project plan was initially constructed for a 2013 arrival date, and so the kick-off point was formally way back in September 2010, with a fairly classic approach… you're trying to work out how to make the best use of available time in order to do all of the learning necessary before committing to a design and then setting about making some pieces, developing testing, so on and so forth. We had a big, obviously significant re-set when we switched to a 2014 arrival and a V6 architecture. That arrived during the course of last summer so in practical terms that meant that we had to re-set the programme planning. So what does that programme planning look like for us, and then of course we're aiming to arrive as competitively as we can possibly be, in time for the first race and the first season of racing in 2014. We have now been running development engines of various types since the latter part of last year. First of all we had single cylinder engines running. There are some extremely significant bits of learning needed in order to be ready. We also had a multi-cylinder engine for the previous architecture that was running and has run more recently. We have now run a V6 and the programme is more or less in line with our planning.

It's an immensely complex power unit – it's important to understand that it's a big big change for all of us with some fundamental drivers that are very very different to powerful ones for the way in which the races will shake out is of course the fuel allowance for the race and the fuel flow limit and the various tunes that can be played in order to make use of all of that, subject to a great deal of fairly fundamental thinking, fairly new to us R&D-type work. We've got new learning to do: everything to do with direct injection, everything to do with turbocharging in these new conditions, a substantially bigger energy recovery system design and development challenge, bigger – because the system is more complicated with two sources of energy recovery, bigger in terms of the contribution to the car performance, bigger in terms of the parts count and all that makes it a more substantial work load hence the programmes which are designed now to, hopefully, converge on a solution. Our intention is to have a race intent power unit on the bed as late as we possibly can, while still having the time to validate it in time for the first race, so our intent is to be race intent in the course of 2013 and everything that we do between when we started, over a year ago now, and now and into the future, when we have a race intent piece on the test bed, is proof of concept, development testing in order to gather the experience needed.

Q. (Naoise Holohan – ManipeF1) I'm just wondering, with the totally new engine formula, how do you set a target in terms of engine power? Do you extrapolate from the V8 that we have at the moment, or how do you pick a figure out of the air?

RW: There are obviously some elements of finger-in-the-wind but there are clearly performance objectives in order to achieve the car performance that we're aiming for, and we have to be ambitious yet realistic with the fuel flow limit that we're talking about. The answer to your question comes down to goal-setting in terms of thermal efficiency and I guess each of the engine constructors will have his own idea of where the competitive answer will be but as in any competitive arena, then the task is to get as far ahead as we can in the time we have with the resources that we have. But you're right, it's a real challenge to know where to set the internal goals in order to be competitive at the arrival.

[Katsuya]

Oh dear Jenson.

[Lineker]

Raiiiiiin. Laaaaaaaaaame.

[Katsuya]

I don't understand how Fernando keeps managing to drive that Ferrari out of its skin. Every single time.

[LUKIE]

Because he is a fantastic driver. It is why he commands the most amount of money.

[Lineker]

Fernando Alonso led the way for Ferrari in a dry final practice session ahead of British Grand Prix qualifying at Silverstone.

Jenson Button was the quickest McLaren driver in second, 0.153 seconds down on Alonso, with Romain Grosjean third for Lotus, and Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull), Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) and Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) completing the top six.

With no dry running at all on Friday and dark clouds closing in, there was immediately a pitlane traffic queue to emulate the ones outside the circuit, with all teams eager to make the most of the conditions.

A sign of how much work was being crammed into the hour was that soft tyres runs began just after the mid-point, with Button the first to hit the front on softs, deposing team-mate Hamilton.

The McLarens swapped places again soon afterwards, as Hamilton took his turn on softs and produced a 1m32.728s to beat Button by 0.123s.

Grosjean then hinted at impressive pace from Lotus by beating the McLarens by three tenths on hard tyres, but his time in front was only fleeting as Alonso then delivered a 1m32.167s to head the order. The championship leader had a quick spin at Club on his next lap, continuing without drama and remaining at head of the times until the finish.

Button eventually reclaimed second, just ahead of Grosjean, who improved again on softs. The second Lotus of Raikkonen was fifth, between Vettel and Hamilton.

Pastor Maldonado was seventh for Williams, with Sergio Perez eighth despite smashing his Sauber's front wing as he bounced over the grass. Team-mate Kamui Kobayashi also had a spin before taking ninth, ahead of Nico Hulkenberg's Force India.

Mercedes' Nico Rosberg had been the initial pacesetter, but had to sit out the latter part of the session with a mechanical problem, so fell to 18th.

Also in mechanical bother was Marussia's Charles Pic. The Frenchman caused a brief red flag when his car ground to a halt on the exit of Copse just after the 20-minute mark. Marussia got it running again, but a similar thing seemed to happen in the closing minutes, leaving Pic stranded on the Hangar Straight.

FP3


Pos  Driver                Team                   Time               Laps

 1.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                1m32.167s            21

 2.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1m32.320s  + 0.153s  20

 3.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault          1m32.358s  + 0.191s  25

 4.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault       1m32.420s  + 0.253s  21

 5.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault          1m32.454s  + 0.287s  25

 6.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes       1m32.477s  + 0.310s  20

 7.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault       1m32.622s  + 0.455s  21

 8.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari         1m32.940s  + 0.773s  19

 9.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari         1m33.046s  + 0.879s  20

10.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes   1m33.150s  + 0.983s  19

11.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault       1m33.267s  + 1.100s  25

12.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes   1m33.367s  + 1.200s  20

13.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault       1m33.398s  + 1.231s  24

14.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes               1m33.462s  + 1.295s  24

15.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m33.673s  + 1.506s  22

16.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari                1m33.674s  + 1.507s  21

17.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m33.707s  + 1.540s  21

18.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes               1m33.733s  + 1.566s  15

19.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault       1m34.298s  + 2.131s  18

20.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault       1m34.781s  + 2.614s  20

21.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth      1m36.605s  + 4.438s  18

22.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth      1m37.060s  + 4.893s  14

23.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth           1m37.269s  + 5.102s  23

24.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth           1m37.429s  + 5.262s  17


All Timing Unofficial[/code]




Fernando Alonso claimed his and Ferrari's first pole position since the 2010 Singapore Grand Prix as he came out on top of a tight battle with Red Bull's Mark Webber in a drying and delayed British GP qualifying session at Silverstone.



The session was interrupted for over an hour and a half when the level of standing water became impossible to handle. By the time it resumed, conditions were much improved, and although full wets were still the best choice for the remaining six minutes of Q2, intermediates were the way to go in the pole shoot-out.



Webber looked to be in good shape as he put himself 0.8 seconds clear of the pack with a 1m51.793s in the closing minutes, only for Alonso to pip it by 0.047s. Webber's reply was not quite quick enough and he had to be content with the outside of the front row.



Germany's two Formula 1 world champions will share row two. Michael Schumacher produced one of his best qualifying efforts for Mercedes as he secured third ahead of the second Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel.



Ferrari got both its cars in the top five, as Felipe Massa qualified fifth.



Kimi Raikkonen's Lotus starts alongside the Brazilian, with Catalunya winner Pastor Maldonado next up for Williams.



The leading British driver was only eighth, Lewis Hamilton qualifying his McLaren on row four. Nico Hulkenberg was ninth quickest but will lose five places due to a gearbox change on his Force India.



Romain Grosjean qualified for Q3 only to the spin into the gravel at Vale at the end of Q2. With his Lotus beached, he had to sit out Q3 and settle for 10th.



Inevitably there were some midfield upsets in the rain. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) was third at the red flag but tumbled to 13th after the restart while Sauber's Sergio Perez dropped further still. Fastest before the stoppage, his choice of intermediates proved too ambitious and he tumbled to 17th.



The headline story from Q1 was yet another Silverstone disappointment for Jenson Button. The McLaren driver could do no better than 18th, his final lap hamstrung by more rain arriving in the final sector plus yellow flags for Timo Glock's spun Marussia on the exit of Club.



Hamilton was the only home driver in the top 10, Paul di Resta (Force India) being edged out of a Q3 place by Alonso in the closing moments, leaving the Scot 11th.



[code]Qualifying


Pos  Driver                Team                 Time          Gap   

 1.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m51.746s   

 2.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m51.793s  + 0.047 

 3.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             1m52.020s  + 0.274 

 4.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m52.199s  + 0.453 

 5.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m53.065s  + 1.319 

 6.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault        1m53.290s  + 1.544 

 7.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault     1m53.539s  + 1.793 

 8.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1m53.543s  + 1.797 

 9.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes 1m54.382s  + 2.636 

10.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault        no time

Q2 cut-off time: 1m56.931s                                   Gap **

11.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 1m57.009s  + 2.112

12.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       1m57.071s  + 2.174

13.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m57.108s  + 2.211

14.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m57.132s  + 2.235

15.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault     1m57.426s  + 2.529

16.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m57.719s  + 2.822

17.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       1m57.895s  + 2.998

Q1 cut-off time: 1m47.105s                                 Gap *

18.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m48.044s  + 1.765

19.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault     1m49.027s  + 2.748

20.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault     1m49.477s  + 3.198

21.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth    1m51.618s  + 5.339

22.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth         1m52.742s  + 6.463

23.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth         1m53.040s  + 6.761

24.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth    1m54.143s  + 7.864


107% time: 1m53.718s


* Gap to quickest in Q1


** Gap to quickest in Q2[

Silverstone chiefs say they can now look forward to race day with some optimism that it can pass without too much drama, after its bold decision to limit crowds on Saturday to save the car parks.

In the wake of a dramatic British Grand Prix, where problems with campsites and grass car parks led to a meltdown of the traffic system on Friday, organisers elected to deter fans holding car park passes from attending on qualifying day.

That move appeared to have paid off, with Silverstone's managing director Richard Phillips claiming that the action has given the track the room it needed to make proper preparations for the expected 125,000 strong crowd on Sunday.

"We had to make a difficult decision yesterday which was really upsetting but today has been a much better day," explained Phillips.

"There were a remarkable number of people who got in here today somehow, I am not sure how, but they did, and hopefully they had a good time.

"We are very grateful for those who actually did stay at home, and hopefully we did not turn too many people away. A fair few people did try and get in. We are where we are, but at least it has given us a breathing space now and we are looking forward to tomorrow."

Although Silverstone did not have any figures on how many fans elected not to attend on Saturday, Phillips said the situation had allowed work to be completed on preparing car parks for race day crowds.

"We are mainly working on things like the entrances, to make sure you can get in, and getting more support vehicles in place.

"The grass car parks are not in a great state, there is no denying that, and it will be challenging tomorrow. But we have been able to put in some other provisions - some of which we can't talk about.

"It is going to be challenging but the fans seem to be very supportive. There is a bit of a Dunkirk Spirit about this one and we are going to have a good go at it."

Phillips also welcomed comments made by Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, who said that Silverstone should not be blamed for finding itself battling the weather.

"Things have changed haven't they?" said Phillips. "He has been very good for the last couple of years actually, since we built the Wing, and made an effort. He understands like most of the people out there that it has been an extraordinarily wet time, and it is very difficult to cope. We had to take some measures which were unfortunate, but we've coped so far."

Phillips did concede however that the traffic situation was at a critical point on Friday - with another day of that chaos potentially leading to bigger problems.

"I think the experience today has been a lot better for those that came, and hopefully those that didn't come didn't have the same situation as yesterday," he said. "It has given us a bit of a breather to get our thoughts together and collect ourselves.

"Another day like yesterday would have killed the staff if nothing else. Could you have put up with that? And then they would have probably deserted us. Sometimes these things get on a bit of a knife edge but we are back on a level keel now. It will be challenging, I don't want to say it isn't."

Derek Warwick, the president of the British Racing Drivers' Club that owns Silverstone, has asked for fans to be 'patient' in the wake of the weather problems that have overshadowed the British Grand Prix weekend.

With waterlogged campsites and car parks leading to a breakdown of the traffic system on Friday, Silverstone advised fans with normal parking tickets to stay away from the venue for qualifying day in a bid to ensure that race day could be got through without major trouble.

The traffic problems have left Silverstone facing intense criticisms about its lack of contingency planning for the conditions, but Warwick reckons the venue did all it could - and could never have predicted the record-levels of rain that hit the venue earlier this week.

"We anticipated problems, and we realised that June was the wettest June on records," explained Warwick. "We put hardcore down on car parks, and metal grids on the car parks, so we did all we could to try and accommodate the weather.

"But we must remember this weekend there has been a lot of major sporting events cancelled because of the weather. The M1 [motorway] was blocked for 30 miles and down to one lane because of flooding, so we are not alone in this.

"We are doing our best, and our executive team has worked a plan out for the next two days. So be patient with us, be kind to us."

He added: "We are running one of the biggest and best grands prix we have ever had here. Last year it broke every record in the book, this year we have surpassed this, and this is our one moment to show the world what a great venue this is. But the weather has played a big part.

"It doesn't affect the race. Of course we want the fans to be happy and it is good to give them an experience that they want to come back, it is important for the BRDC and Silverstone. It will still be a good race. Let's all not get doom and gloom here. It is not the end: we can have a good race and a good weekend."

Silverstone hopes that its advice to fans to stay away on Saturday will lead to a reduction in cars trying to get in to the circuit – which should help preserve car parks for Sunday.

Kimi Raikkonen says it is a case of 'good, but could do better' when assessing his performance in the first half of his comeback season on the eve of the ninth round of this year's campaign at Silverstone.

The 2007 world champion, who has finished on the podium three times since he came back to Formula 1 following a two-year spell in the WRC, says that while he is pleased with the results he has achieved so far with Lotus, he is also frustrated by the knowledge that he could have done even better.

"You always prefer to be higher up and if you would have told me before the season that I would be on the podium a few times and I had this many points I probably would say that yes that's great," he said.

"But then of course you get there and you know that with certain things we could have done better and we would probably have had better results so then you are always a bit disappointed.

"But no I am still happy and as a team we are in a pretty good position, but still we could have done better, so it is just the fact that we haven't achieved what we probably should have achieved."

Raikkonen added that he is still working towards a better feeling in the E20 and admitted that disrupted race weekends are hindering him from achieving that goal.

"If you make a small error somewhere or have a small issue at a certain point of the weekend then it can easily cost you a lot of time," he said. "It looks like a small thing but it might make a big difference in the end.

"It is difficult to always get the perfect weekend, it's not the easiest thing.

"We have to still find on the set-up side something that we are 100 per cent happy with, and we are looking for it and we have some ideas. But every time when it's wet like this we have to wait and it's not so simple to say okay we'll try this and this. The weather can change or you have a small issue and then you cannot do anything.

"We just have to be patient and try to get as good a result as we can and try to just work on the small details that we have to improve."

Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has suggested the future technical rules should be set by the leading teams, as he moves closer finalising a new Concorde Agreement.

Although the current regulations are laid down after a strict process that involves the FIA's Technical Working Group, the Formula 1 Commission and the World Motor Sport Council, Ecclestone reckons that a new process could be agreed in the future.

In an interview with The Daily Mail, Ecclestone made it clear that all teams - including Mercedes that had been holding out for improved commercial terms – were now on board with the new Concorde.

"Total agreement," said Ecclestone. "We are just talking to the lawyers – 'why have you used this word, that word'. Typical lawyers but everything's fine. Commercially it's done."

Speaking about the way rules could be framed going forward, he said: "Now what we've got to do is look at how the technical regulations are made. It should be the teams, though not all the teams, who do that.

"They are the people who have to come up with the money, not the FIA. It would be the established teams who are here to stay - Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull, Mercedes and probably Williams as old timers - deciding what to do."

Jean-Eric Vergne said he has had a 'reset' in the brain following his European Grand Prix crash, where he was given a 10-place grid penalty for Silverstone after colliding with Heikki Kovalainen's Caterham.

The Frenchman, who retired from the race following the accident in Valencia, admitted that the incident (which also cost him a 25,000 euro fine) is not something he intends to repeat.

"I had a reset definitely," said Vergne. "Valencia was quite a hard weekend and I made a mistake definitely and I paid for it in cash!

"I think I deserved it, but whether it is good or not is not for me to judge. The only thing that I can say is that I have learned from it and I won't do this kind of mistake any more. All that's gone though, it's over, I've passed to something else now and I am really looking forward to this race weekend."

Vergne, who has been overshadowed by his Toro Rosso team-mate Daniel Ricciardo, says that he is focussed on improving his qualifying form - which he identifies as the weakest area in his game so far in his Formula 1 rookie season.

"I think it is probably the most difficult thing for me at the moment," he said. "It's quite difficult, it's not like we are always running in qualifying conditions through free practice.

"We never have the same fuel in, and having a lower-fuelled car is quite a bit different in the way you have to push with it, so that's why it is a bit tricky at the moment. But I will still work, I think the performances in the race are always really good, or at least always much better than our performance in qualifying.

"Looking at the performance in the race, we know we can have the same in the qualifying we just need to work that way. It will get better and better, it's just patience."

Vergne also admitted that it was taking time to come to terms with not being a contender for victory every weekend, having been a frontrunner in previous categories, and that it was taking a while to readjust his perspectives.

"Confidence is really important," he said. "When you are a driver that is used to winning everything in all the other categories, even if you know you are coming to F1 and that you might not win, that you won't get podiums or even that it will be difficult to score points, you think it's going to be OK when you are at the back of the grid or if you make a good race ,and you finish it quite far off, it's of course a little bit difficult for me.

"In the end I learn from it and I will just try to be more satisfied with the race even if the result is not fantastic. I think we need a positive spirit that will bring us closer to the front. I'm sure that's what we are doing.

"We are working hard in a good way and the result will come, maybe not now, maybe not in three races, but it can only get better I think."

Pirelli will ask Formula 1 teams if they are happy to take its new experimental hard tyre to the German Grand Prix, after plans to run it at Silverstone on Friday were wrecked by the weather.

The new hard compound tyre has a wider operating window, which should make it easier for the teams to work with, but no teams got to use it on the opening practice day because both sessions were wet.

With Pirelli scheduling to use the soft and medium at the German GP, it is not ideal to try and spend time evaluating the hard compound at Hockenheim - but the Italian tyre manufacturer thinks it may still be the best option to see if it is an improvement.

Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery said: "We will probably take it to Hockenheim. We will ask teams if we can take it there, as we are quite keen to see it – although it is not ideal for the nature of the track."

Hembery said last month that although the tyre may be viewed to be a step forward, Pirelli would be reluctant to introduce it this year because it could favour one team more than another – which could have an influence on the world championship battle.

"I would say it is really for next year," he explained at Silverstone. "We are just trying to understand the correlation between our test car [a 2010 Renault] and the current cars."

McLaren, Caterham and Marussia all broke the team curfew overnight between Friday and Saturday at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

Team personnel associated with the operation of the car for each of the teams remained within the confines of the circuit during the six-hour period between 1am and 7am on Saturday morning.

Each team is allowed four exceptions per year. In all three cases this was the first one, and the FIA confirmed in a statement that no action would be taken.

Nico Hulkenberg will take a five-place grid penalty for the British Grand Prix after his Force India team elected to change the gearbox on his car.

The German finished in fifth place in Valencia a fortnight ago but his team found a problem with his gearbox after the event.

The unit was changed ahead of final practice at Silverstone, which means he will be given a mandatory five-place grid penalty after qualifying.

Charles Pic will take a five-place grid penalty for the British Grand Prix after his gearbox was changed before qualifying.

The Frenchman, who ended up last overall in the rain-hit qualifying session, needed to have a replacement gearbox fitted following the problems that he encountered on Saturday morning.

Pic's penalty is unlikely to make any difference to his starting position.

Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone says Silverstone chiefs were helpless to prevent the traffic chaos that has overshadowed this weekend's British Grand Prix - as he said circuit bosses should not be criticised for what has happened.

Unprecedented rain over recent weeks left campsites and grass car parks unusable, which helped trigger the breakdown in the traffic system on Friday that left many spectators unable to get in to the circuit.

With Silverstone bosses reacting as best as they could to the situation – urging fans to stay away on Saturday in a bid to save the car parks for Sunday – Ecclestone said he did not hold the circuit responsible for what happened.

"I'm really, really upset for the fans, but in reality if it was you running the race what would you do?" Ecclestone told BBC Radio 5 Live.

"For the people of Silverstone, what could they have done? They probably couldn't predict the rain."

Ecclestone avoided getting involved in the traffic problems on Friday after he was advised by Silverstone not to attempt to make the journey to the circuit.

In the past he has been a fierce critic of the venue, and on numerous times threatened to drop the British GP from the calendar if facilities were not brought up to scratch.

He echoed the claims of Silverstone bosses that the trigger for the problems on Friday was campsites being unable to accommodate the number of people who had turned up in the morning hoping to find somewhere to stay.

"Apparently from what I hear there are a lot of camping sites everywhere that shouldn't be there that let people park," he said. "Because they were under water, the people arrived that had paid to park, drove around and that's what caused all the trouble with the traffic jams."

He added: "Honestly I don't think anyone expected the amount of rain we had. You might as well say why didn't the council in all these different places throughout England do something, because I looked on the TV and saw the places flooded, the houses flooded, shops flooded, people abandoning cars. I didn't expect to see that either."

Sebastian Vettel fears the British Grand Prix will be a big lottery if the conditions remain the same for the race as in Saturday's qualifying.

The grid-deciding session had to be red-flagged because of the torrential rain, and Vettel finished in fourth position once it was resumed.

The Red Bull driver believes Sunday's race will be very tough if, as expected, conditions do not improve significantly.

"It could be a big lottery just like today with conditions like that," said Vettel. "It will be a tough day. Now it's raining again and it's probably the same weather tomorrow. It will be a long race."

Vettel thinks he could have gone slightly quicker during Q3, but said he only had one lap when the conditions were at their best.

"Unfortunately in the end it was quite difficult with only one lap when the conditions were probably best," he said. "Not ideal for us in terms of traffic but the lap I had was clean. I had some mistakes. It's the same for all of us. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't."

The world champion also backed the decision to stop the session when it was clear the conditions were impossible to drive in.

"I think it was the right call to red-flag the session. Race direction did well. And then after that I think it was tougher for the people in the grandstands than for us because we are sitting in a dry garage. For them it's a shame but that's how it is. You can't manipulate the weather."

Fernando Alonso says he does not expect his British Grand Prix pole position to come under any threat over the end-of-Q2 yellow flag situation as he is confident he backed off sufficiently.

The Ferrari driver only got into Q3 thanks to a late improvement in Q2, when he looked set to be eliminated.

Alonso's jump into the top 10 came at a time when yellow flags were out at Vale after Romain Grosjean had spun his Lotus into the gravel, but the championship leader was adamant that his time gains had come elsewhere around the Silverstone circuit.

"I didn't set a green sector on that lap," Alonso said. "I backed off in the area they were taking the car away."

Alonso's last pole prior to Silverstone was at the 2010 Singapore GP. The Spaniard secured his return to the head of the grid at Silverstone after a close battle with Red Bull's Mark Webber, and while happy with the result, Alonso admitted it might not mean much in the race if the weather was as wild as has been forecast.

"We are happy with pole position after nearly two years for Ferrari. For Ferrari it's a long time," said Alonso. "With these weather conditions the qualifying is one of the least important of the year, because everything will be mixed after a few laps tomorrow, but with visibility it's better to start at the front so I am happy."

Ferrari was near the back of the pack when qualifying was red-flagged for an hour and a half due to the level of standing water on the track, having made the wrong tyre choice of intermediates for the start of Q2.

Alonso said his change of fortune showed how easy it was to get things wrong in the conditions.

"In wet conditions you never know, you need to be in the right place at the right time when you do the lap, and the lap has to be clean with no huge mistakes," he said. "When you find yourself on pole position that can be surprising."

Alonso was one of the drivers who had called for a red flag after he had a wild spin on standing water out of Becketts early in Q2, and was pleased with the decision to pause the session.

"It was impossible to run - a good decision to red flag and also a good decision waiting for the time the circuit was in condition to run again," he said. "Sometimes we criticise the decisions when we are not happy with them, today they are doing a very good job. First priority was safety."

Michael Schumacher believes he has a good chance of shining in the British Grand Prix if the race takes place in the wet.

The Mercedes driver continued to show his team's strong form on a wet track when he secured third place on the grid for Sunday's event.

After that, the seven-time champion reiterated he would welcome more rain on race day.

"I think we look reasonably competitive in wet conditions, either on inters or full wet," said Schumacher. "So therefore rain is welcome tomorrow.

"But it was a bit of an exciting session today, particularly Q2. I'm happy with third - good work by the boys."

Schumacher said he did not push to the limit during his final flying lap because he did not want to risk going off.

"I think it was only initially difficult to decide, but when you give it a watch and see what others are doing it was clear inter was the tyre to be on," he added. "I didn't want to make a mistake so I left a margin.

"Nevertheless to finish third was good for us. I am quite pleased for this. It's a good position to start the race from and depending on the conditions we have tomorrow maybe I am on the lucky side as it might be drier. But mixed conditions will be very much appreciated by me."

Team-mate Nico Rosberg was knocked out in Q2 and will start from 12th position.

Daniel Ricciardo is convinced he had the pace to go into Q3 in qualifying for the British Grand Prix.

But the Toro Rosso driver said that the yellow flags at the end of the session meant he was unable to improve, being knocked out in Q2.

The Australian will start from 14th position, but he believes Toro Rosso's pace is stronger than that.

"Unfortunately, after the restart I didn't manage to get through to the top 10, where we had been before the red flag," said Ricciardo. "I am sure I was affected by the yellow flag for [Romain] Grosjean's spin on the last lap, because without it I would have have been into Q3.

"Our pace is better than our position would have you believe, therefore, as I said on Friday, if we have a wet race, which seems likely, I think we can do well tomorrow, when I will be racing hard.

"The car seems to work well in the wet, but starting in the midfield there will be a lot of spray to contend with, so there are pros and cons to racing in the rain."

Team-mate Jean-Eric Verge qualified in 16th position, but the Frenchman also felt going into Q3 was possible.

"I am disappointed, as I feel I could have got into Q3 today," he said. "I hope we have a wet race tomorrow, because although I will be starting from the back, everything is possible in these conditions and I hope I can make the most of the fact our car is working well in the wet, to have a good race."

Sauber drivers Kamui Kobayashi and Sergio Perez believe it was the wrong decision to choose intermediate tyres for the second half of Q2 at Silverstone.

The duo rejoined the track with intermediate tyres following the red-flag stoppage, but it was soon evident the track was still too wet.

Perez and Kobayashi returned to pits to change tyres, but only had time to complete only flying lap with full wets.

Kobayashi finished in 12th position.

"We started on intermediate tyres after the break and this proved to be the wrong decision," said Kobayashi. "I pitted and changed to rain tyres, but then I only had time for one flying lap and in the difficult conditions this wasn't enough to improve as much as I needed to make it into Q3.

"Before that we had a very good chance of fighting for a top position. Our pace was really good in the wet. It is a missed opportunity.

"For tomorrow's race I don't really care whether it's wet or dry. I'll be starting a long way down the grid and will fight as hard as I can."

Perez, who qualified in 17th place, also believes the decision to use intermediates was wrong, but said traffic cost him extra time too.

"We made the wrong decision when we went for intermediates instead of rain tyres after the break, but I also had traffic," he said.

"I was driving behind Daniel Ricciardo and could hardly see anything. It is such a shame because we clearly had the pace to fight for a top position here. However, we made a mistake and now have to try hard to recover from that in the race."

Jenson Button is optimistic that he will be able to come through the field from 17th on the grid in Sunday's British Grand Prix.

The McLaren driver - who has never finished on the podium in his home race in his Formula 1 career so far - struggled for tyre temperature early in Q1, then was stymied by the return of the rain and yellow flags for Timo Glock's Club spin when on a much better lap at the end of the segment.

Button was 18th fastest, but will gain one position from Toro Rosso driver Jean-Eric Vergne being demoted 10 places for his clash with Heikki Kovalainen in Valencia.

With more rain expected on Sunday, Button hopes that saving tyres in qualifying could turn out to be advantageous.

"We don't get that many tyres, so this could actually be a good thing," he said. "If tomorrow's wet - which we think it's going to be - then we haven't put as much mileage on the tyres. You've got to take the positives, because it was a very unlucky session."

He added: "Obviously I'd rather put on a much better show for the fans on Saturday, but not getting heat into the fronts is the story of my year so I'm not too upset. It's pretty normal and I know I can drive a racing car in the wet, so it shouldn't be a problem tomorrow."

Button said the difference between the two sets of tyres he used in Q1 was significant, but that he had grown accustomed to such problems this season.

"It felt completely different [on the second set]," he said. "I came out of the pits and could actually get heat into the tyres straight away and it felt good, whereas with the first set I came out of the pits and had front shuddering and just couldn't get fronts up to temperature. The story of my year, really."

The Briton had no doubt that his final lap would have got him beyond Q1 but for the rain around Stowe and Club, and the yellows for the stranded Marussia.

"I gained almost 1.7s according to my dash compared to the previous lap-ime, which wouldn't have just got me in, it would've given us the quickest laptime," said Button. "It's a pity but it just wasn't meant to be."

Lewis Hamilton says eighth represented the maximum he could have hoped for in qualifying for the British Grand Prix given his lack of grip on the intermediate compounds.

The Briton had finished fastest in Q2, but as conditions improved and the field switched onto intermediates in Q3 he was unable to find any grip and ended with a share of the fourth row.

"It was difficult, it is always is qualifying in the wet, but we really struggled. For some reason the tyres wouldn't switch on in Q3, and we had no grip," Hamilton said.

"The extremes worked really well, then I came in because I thought it was drying and they [intermediates] would give us the best grip and I was just sliding like crazy.

"I can't for the life of me understand why the tyres didn't switch on there. It's very, very rare that I cant get my tyres working, but I was pushing and pushing and there was no grip there. Something is not right."

Hamilton said his tyre woes disguised the true pace of the McLaren, and that his hopes for tomorrow's race had therefore not been dented.

"The car is quicker than what we did, but I didn't have any grip so couldn't go faster," he explained. "I did everything I could; I couldn't have done better.

"We're not that far away though. Unfortunately didn't get the front row but we can still push through tomorrow. From eighth, everything is still possible."

Asked whether he was surprised at Ferrari capturing its first pole of the year, Hamilton added: "No. They won the last race, and have been good on their intermediates. For some reason they can switch them on and we didn't.

"Ferrari is just quick and worked their tyres properly and so is Red Bull. I'm not frustrated though.

"I would have loved to be a bit higher, but tomorrow is the day that really counts."

Silverstone says fans with tickets for Sunday of the British Grand Prix should have no concerns about attending race day - but that they should leave extra time and car share if possible.

The British Formula 1 venue had advised Saturday ticket-holders with general car parking tickets not to attend and offered refunds in the wake of the weather and traffic chaos that had marred the event so far.

But organisers are now confident that they are on top of the issues and that Sunday - when a 125,000-strong crowd is expected - will run smoothly.

"Silverstone would like to thank fans that heeded the circuit's advice on Friday evening and did not come to the Formula 1 Santander British Grand Prix on Saturday," said a Silverstone statement.

"While it was an extremely difficult decision, and one that will have disappointed people that had to stay away, the decision gave the circuit a fighting chance to repair and get previously unsafe car parks into a state that can be used on race day.

"The circuit has implemented further contingency plans throughout Friday night and Saturday. As a result, it is now in a stronger position to accommodate all ticket holders coming to Silverstone on Sunday."

The track has issued advice to fans travelling to the circuit, including to "leave plenty of time to arrive at the circuit and, where possible, travel in 4x4 vehicles, on motorcycles or car share."

Bruno Senna admitted he was possibly over-cautious in Q2 at Silverstone, but said after recent bad luck and penalties, he did not want to risk getting a grid demotion for a yellow flag infringement in the end-of-session rush.

Yellows came out in the final sector at the end of Q2 when Romain Grosjean spun his Lotus into the gravel at Vale. Senna said he was particularly careful and ended up 14th fastest, while Williams team-mate Pastor Maldonado went through to Q3.

"I've been getting some bad luck in the last few races with what's been happening on the track and punishments, and I didn't want to push my luck today," said Senna.

"It's a question of talking to Charlie [Whiting] and finding out what he wants - if he wants you to be safe or if he wants you to be very subjectively proving on your telemetry that you slow down."

He is confident Williams will be competitive whatever the weather in the British Grand Prix, and said his qualifying performance did not really hint at his potential pace.

"Unfortunately that's how it goes. This is a lottery and today we weren't the winners," said Senna. "I was driving very conservatively - I don't have many miles in the car in these conditions so I wasn't pushing as hard as I could.

"We can still have a competitive race tomorrow, it's just harder when you have to come from the back. It's very frustrating and once again I'm just out of position on the start."

Kimi Raikkonen feels he could have improved on sixth place on the grid for the British Grand Prix if he had switched to intermediate tyres earlier in the final part of qualifying at Silverstone on Saturday.

The Finn, who ran throughout qualifying without the KERS working on his Lotus, said that having only one flying lap on the inters meant that it was difficult to get enough heat into the tyres and that his final lap was also hindered by rain falling again on the Stowe/Club section of the circuit.

"I think we should have probably started with the intermediates in Q3 so we got some more heat in them," he said afterwards. "We only got one lap on them so that probably wasn't ideal but I think we did the best job that we could from that position so...

"It's not ideal if it rains tomorrow because there is a lot of spray but it is what is."

Asked how much time he thought he lost by not switching from full wets to inters earlier, Raikkonen replied: "I don't know. It's one of those things that you cannot say, but for sure it would have been easier when you get more heat in the tyres and you probably can go faster. But it's our choice and it probably wasn't the ideal."

Raikkonen also lost an estimated 0.3s per lap because of the KERS issue, though he admitted that the changeable conditions had reduced the impact of the problem on his performance.

"Probably it doesn't hurt so much because you cannot use it as effectively, but you still get it on the straights," he said. "For sure it is not as bad as in the dry but we have it because it's going to make us faster so...

"I don't know [what the problem was], they [Lotus] probably know the issue by now and they will try to fix it for the race. We tried already twice to change the battery but it wasn't that so it is something else that they have to find. They are allowed to change it if they find an issue."

Post-qualifying press conference:

TV UNILATERAL

Q. Fernando first pole since 2010, very difficult to get it right today, especially with that long delay in Q2. What was the secret though at the end?

Fernando ALONSO: No secret. I think it's tricky conditions for everyone. You have to be calm in some difficult moments. In Q2, as you mentioned, we were at the red flag, in position 15 and 16, Felipe and me. It was not easy, so we went through Q2 and in Q3 difficult choice between extreme and intermediate tyres. We chose the intermediates and when we saw everyone planning on those tyres we more or less calmed down a little bit. And then we put a lap together, which is not easy. You make a little mistake here or there and to complete a lap without making a huge mistake is not easy in these conditions. Yeah, happy with pole position after nearly two years, for Ferrari that's a long time and we'll see. Tomorrow is the race and with these weather conditions the qualifying becomes one of the less important qualifyings of the year because everything will mix up after a few laps tomorrow maybe, but for visibility and things like that it's always better to start at the front, so very happy.

Q. Mark, a great duel between you and Fernando at the end there. You missed out on pole by five one hundredths of a second - it's always good to compete against this guy [Alonso] yes?

Mark WEBBER: Yeah, it was a very tight session. Ultimately, you don't know how you're going, you're completely focused on yourself, putting a lap together. As Fernando said it's very tricky in sections around the lap. Obviously, in a session like this when you've got five or 10 seconds sometimes between one session to the next session obviously it's a huge amount down to the driver to get comfortable in the conditions, also with the car. The guys did a great job. Yeah it was nip and tuck with Fernando for the pole. I think ultimately we put a pretty good lap together, our strategy in quali I was pretty happy with it, doing four laps... and race tomorrow.

Q. Michael, another strong qualifying for you. You used to be known as the rain meister, how do you fancy your chances tomorrow in a wet British Grand Prix?

Michael SCHUMACHER: I think we look reasonably competitive in wet conditions – either on intermediate or heavy wet – so therefore rain is welcome tomorrow. It was a bit of an exciting session today, particularly Q2 where I had the wrong visor on, that didn't have anti-fog. I didn't have much visibility and found myself sideways in Becketts. That didn't help either. But we recovered well in the delay and got back in our rhythm. Yeah, very happy to be third; good for the team; good for my boys, so thanks to all of the guys.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q. Fernando, first of all well done, is it a surprise or did you feel it was a lottery a little bit out there in the conditions?

FA: It's always a surprise to be on pole position because you know that conditions in qualifying… it's always difficult to beat some of the guys around and we maybe feel more confident in dry conditions. We did some tests today in FP3 and the car felt quite good in the high-speed corners and we were quite happy with the balance – but in wet conditions you never know. You need to be in the right place in the right moment, with the circuit in the best conditions possible when you do the lap and that lap has to be clean with not huge mistakes because a little bit here and there you always lose or you can improve a little bit because you never know exactly the conditions of the next corner when you arrive on a day like today. It can be a little bit drier than the lap before but we saw some drops of rain on the visors so it can be a little bit wetter so it's a little bit of… gambling what would be the grip at the next corner. To put the lap together was the only thing we had to do today and when you find yourself in pole position, for sure it's a little bit surprising but, yeah, good to battle like this.

Q. It was nearly all over in the first part of Q2, wasn't it – at one point you were facing the wall?

FA: Yes. I had a spin in Turn 13. It was a lot of aquaplaning there. We changed tyres, we went for the extreme tyres and there was a red flag. It was impossible to run, to be honest it was a good decision. And then also it was a good decision waiting for the time the circuit was in condition to run again. So, sometimes we criticise the decisions when we are not happy with them and today they were doing a really good job. The first priority is safety, the track was not in condition to continue qualifying and we wait the necessary time to do it and we've been at the limit for Q3, I think P9, so it was not easy. I had a Toro Rosso for two laps in front of me with no visibility, so the Q2 lap was a little bit like a blind lap: you do whatever time the Toro Rosso will do – more or less.

Q. How big a moment was it on the grass when you went off in Q2? You got a round of applause in the press room for sorting it out…

FA: It was very big and you are not in control of the car. You need a bit of luck and we were lucky today. With that moment in Q2, with all the decisions that we make for the tyres that it was the right one – and lucky also that we put the lap together and lucky as well in the distance with Mark because there were some milliseconds. It can be first and second in a very easy way and today it was everything perfect for us. But the race is tomorrow, not today.

Q. Mark, for you pole last year and you won in 2010, you've been on the podium for the last three years. A good circuit for you? You seem to have adapted very well to the British weather…

MW: It's been a good track for me since 1995 when I won my first Formula Ford race here – so it goes back quite a while – don't want to show my age too much! But yeah, it's a good track, it's challenging for the drivers and it's nice to let the car breathe a little bit in some of the quick stuff. Obviously this morning it was nice to feel the car in dry conditions, obviously we didn't get that in quali – and as Fernando's touched on, it was a very tricky session for us when the track's moving around by five, six seconds a go in terms of conditions. Each session is tricky for us. But the guys made all the right decisions. There were a few calls from the cockpit as well to pull things together and ultimately I think we got the maximum out of what we could have done today. As Fernando says, it's a long lap to put together; there are rivers, you can improve here and there but also if you try to push a bit harder you can have no corners on the car. So it's better to try to finish the lap and get yourself up there. Risk management was very important today. I'm very happy with my lap and ultimately we're in a good position to start the race tomorrow. Visibility will be important if it's wet, and go from there.

Q. Michael, pole in 2001 of course and three wins here, how difficult was it to get going again after that hour delay? 60 minutes of delay…

MS: I guess first of all we should give applause to all the fans who remained with us in all these conditions. That's been pretty special and big applause to them. For us, in the position that some cars had been, you would probably have wished just to finish qualifying there. The ones that would have been out, Fernando and myself, we were happy to get this opportunity under drivable conditions because Q2, when it started, almost from the beginning it was already on the limit, if not slightly over the limit, and therefore thanks to the FIA to take the right decision and abort it and put it into a spot that was probably the only one – and a perfect one – that was available today. For us to get going, it's not that big a deal. It's worse hanging around and waiting. It's more tiring than driving and sitting in the car and being in action, that's pretty straightforward to me.

Q. How difficult was the tyre choice?

MS: I think it was only initially difficult to decide but when you give it a second and watch what others do then it becomes pretty straightforward. By the end it was clear the inter was the tyre to be on. Ideally you would have had more than one lap – because it was the last lap that counted and obviously you're not allowed to make a mistake so you always somewhere leave some margin, that another lap for sure you could recover and do a much better job. Nevertheless, to then finish third was good for us. I'm pleased with this, it's a good position to start the race from. It's a good line and, depending on the condition we have tomorrow, maybe I'm on the lucky side because it might be the slightly drier line compared to the inner side that's a little bit wet. We'll find out tomorrow if that's the case or not the case – but that expedition will be very much appreciated to me.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q. (Mike Doodson – Honorary) Michael, some of your most memorable wins have been in the wet. This circuit has a reputation for holding water. It did take a very long time to drain. Do you have any criticisms either of that or of the fact that the circuit is unpredictable from place to place as you go along, perhaps less predictable where you've won in the wet before?

MS: First of all, a compliment to all the marshals, they managed to get the track in pretty good shape with all the sweeping and drying up. There was almost no standing water when we went back out again. That was a good job, so in case of heavy rain tomorrow, I hope they're going to be ready, in between the safety car or whatever they have to decide. But I think on some circuits they have that situation and they did the best from what was available today.

Q. (Manuel Franco - AS) Fernando, you said in Spanish that this pole is dedicated to someone special, is it for Maria de Villota?

FA: Yes, obviously she's having some difficult moments, her family as well and I think all of us, this weekend, we are all racing with a little bit of sadness about the news at the beginning of the week from Marussia and from her. Anything we do this weekend hopefully will bring strength to her and her family, and we wish her a very good recovery.

Q. (Leonid Novozhilov – F1Life) Fernando, first place in qualifying in the rain; was this difficult or not very difficult for you?

FA: Yes, yes, it is very difficult, always very difficult to be on pole position, but on days like today, it's difficult for everyone. I think from pole position to 24th, we had a very difficult time in the car, because, as I said, you don't know how the grip will be in the next corner. We had a lot of rivers on the track, especially in Q2 and it's not just to find the last tenth or half a tenth of a second; just to complete the lap is difficult. Very stressful qualifying, but it's the same for everybody and today we have been lucky, as I said.

Q. (Carlos Miguel – La Gaceta) Fernando, for tomorrow, will it be difficult for you on intermediate tyres and what are you afraid of in the race?

FA: Well, I think the car should also be competitive on extreme wet tyres, but as I said, in Q2 I did a lap exactly the same as a Toro Rosso whatever the lap. I started the lap one second behind him and I finished the lap around 0.8s behind him, and I was in and he was out, for virtually nothing. So I think with normal visibility, I think we should also be competitive with the extremes. For sure ideally we would like a dry race because you maximise the pole position a little bit and you have a bit of free air, especially in the first stint if you do a good start. If it's wet or changeable conditions as we've the whole weekend, grid positions are not really important, because on lap eight it could start raining or drying up or whatever and someone at the back may have nothing to lose and could maybe change tyres or whatever and finds himself first or second. It's more difficult but let's see. I think we felt competitive on the dry, inters and wet so we will see tomorrow what we can do.

Q. (Frederic Ferret – L'Equipe) How do you prepare yourself for a race which could be very wet? Is there a way of thinking differently, or driving differently for the whole of a wet race?

MW: Obviously the concentration is a little bit different to a dry Grand Prix, so you've got to have that in mind. Some of the straights here are not very straightforward in terms of… like out of turn seven, going through there with compromised visibility, standing water, so dry Grands Prix still obviously require immense concentration and focus to put everything together but in the wet you have more balls in the air and you need to be ready for that and also be flexible and focused and I said before, controlled aggression and stay composed. You know that the grass doesn't have much grip so best stay away from that if you can and get to the flag.

Q. (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Fernando, we saw you take the P9 position in Q2 when there were yellow flags for Grosjean. Could you explain what happened at that moment, if you feel that you're safe(from incurring any penalty)?

FA: Yes. I didn't set a green sector in that particular lap with the yellow. I backed off in the area where they were taking away the car, so I don't have any worries.

Q. I've been asked to ask you is if any of you will be following Wimbledon after the race tomorrow?

FA: No.

MW: Absolutely. Federer for seven, honestly it's a great final. Whoever wins it's a great story. Obviously for Andy, first Grand Slam, first Wimbledon and for Roger, obviously he's a phenomenal sportsman, to match Pistol Pete (Sampras) on seven. He's a real inspiration, Federer. He would be good to watch.

MS: What time is it? I would like to watch it if I have time, but I would prefer not to have time!

Q. (Marco dell'Ignocenti – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Could you not imagine that if the weather conditions and track conditions were similar tomorrow to today, would you not fear a very boring race behind the safety car?

MS: In that case we're going to watch Federer and Murray!

FA: Hopefully not, not only for us, I think, but for the fans. As Michael said, they've been amazing all weekend with these weather conditions and they deserve a normal race tomorrow, so even if it's wet, not stopping the race or nothing like that, hopefully.

MW: Charlie (Whiting, race director) has learned a lot in the last few years and has done a very good job in certain conditions, so he know what wet tyres are capable of, the extreme, also factor in the visibility so they are the two main things: standing water and visibility. If they are under control then we race, if they're not then we don't. After that, we work through the tyres and the race is OK. Tomorrow is obviously a big day for Charlie tomorrow to communicate with us like he does a good job over the last few years, no problems.

Q. (Silva Arias – Argentina) Fernando, it's very nice for you as well to get pole position after two years, as you said before. How important is it for your team as well and for your confidence and everything?

FA: Yeah, yeah, definitely very important. It's nice to be on pole position. We know that the conditions were not normal. They were very tricky so we are still aiming for pole position one day on a sunny day and no factors around which will prove the level of competitiveness that the car can have and that's what we want, but until that point arrives, today's pole position is very welcome and as I said, it's more for the history of Ferrari etc. Two years is a long time.

Q. (Michael Schmidt - Auto, Motor und Sport) Michael, you were looking strong yesterday in the wet today as well. This morning, at least from the lap time it was a different picture. Is it just an impression that the Mercedes is better in the wet and if so why?

MS: The question is how much fuel was in the cars this morning, so I think it is a hypopthetical situation, to judge what you have seen in qualifying with what you have seen this morning.

[Fry_4000]

Petrov out before race even starts

[Lineker]

Yeah, oil pressure problem apparently.

[Summers]

bye di resta.

[Fry_4000]

Kamui

[Lineker]

Again Pastor?

[Summers]

Maldonado you twat.

[Katsuya]

Oh god, Pastor. You make it hard to try and defend you. Yes he sort of slid in to Perez by accident but it is starting to get a bit tiresome.

Lewis' strategy is awful today. He's fighting for 6th-7th I reckon ATM.

[Lineker]

Webber!!!!!!!!!!

[Summers]

fuck off

[Katsuya]

Yes Mark