Drivers defend pre-qual ‘go-slow'

As things turned out the rain held off and Jenson Button, who ran last by dint of setting the quickest time in pre-qualifying, got his lap in unhindered and qualified third. Many drivers, however, set unrepresentative times and Michael Schumacher and Giancarlo Fisichella actually spun.

Rubens Barrichello admitted that he had deliberately run wide at Vale in order to set a slow time and, when asked whether Schumacher's third spin of the weekend at Luffield had been deliberate, merely grinned and said: "I don't know, you'd better ask him..."

Ferrari may have been concerned about article 151c of the international sporting code, which forbids drivers to do "any act prejudicial to the interests of motor sport generally." Deliberately driving slowly when spectators had paid to watch a qualifying session could be interpreted in such a way.

Other drivers made no attempt to disguise their intentions and merely slowed right down. These included Williams drivers Juan Pablo Montoya and Marc Gene, David Coulthard, Takuma Sato and Jaguar's Mark Webber and Christian Klien.

Barrichello, however, said: "The end result was a consequence of the qualifying format as it is now. That's just the way it is. Sometimes it will be faster going at the beginning of the qualifying session. It's part of the strategy and I think the public will understand. I'm not against it."

Button said: "At first we thought it was going to rain at the start of the qualifying session but then we heard that the rain was going to go past us. There were clouds over us but they had held for 15-20 minutes and everything worked out well."