Practice 4: Kimi again

Despite the McLaren team downplaying the new car's potential, Raikkonen was able to respond whenever anyone threatened his position at the top of the times throughout the morning's two 45-minute sessions. The Finn, who suffered appalling reliability in the original MP4-19 and struggled to be competitive until the new car's debut in France last weekend, is beginning to emerge as a serious threat for victory on Sunday.

Button, no doubt buoyed by performing in front his home crowd, has been quick all morning, but can't quite match Raikkonen's pace. Eventually the BAR-Honda driver had to settle for second, 0.134s slower than the Finn's 1m18.280s lap.

Rubens Barrichello was the fastest Ferrari and Bridgestone runner. The Brazilian set his time near the end of the session and although he set the fastest first sector time, could not match the rapid McLaren through the middle part of the lap. But he did fare better than Michael Schumacher, who is had a terrible morning. The world champion uncharacteristically spun twice in the complex, once in both sessions.

The second of these spins, halfway through the session, was under braking for Priory at a high enough speed for him to bounce across the gravel trap on to an escape road. He was fortunate not to hit anything but the incident kept him from taking further part even though he made it back to the pits, and rendered him eighth fastest.

Jarno Trulli was fourth quickest in the Renault. The Italian started last year's race from the front row, and could be a dark horse this afternoon, just 0.3s off the ultimate pace. BMW WillamsF1 team sub Marc Gene will be happy with his morning's work. Having struggled in France last weekend, he out-gunned regular driver Juan Pablo Montoya as the pair set the fifth and sixth fastest times.

David Coulthard, who has twice won this grand prix in the past, can't seem to match the stunning pace of his McLaren team-mate and ended the session 0.639s down in seventh position. Fernando Alonso was ninth quickest and ended the session with his smoking Renault being pulled into the garage. Whether this will result in an engine change and a 10-spot penalty is unclear at the moment.

Giancarlo Fisichella, already saddled with such a penalty, was 10th fastest in his Sauber ahead of Toyota's Cristiano da Matta. Sauber's other driver Felipe Massa was 12th.

Mark Webber matched his 13th position from the first session of the morning but Jaguar fans will be disappointed to note that he is now more than 2s away from the ultimate pace. Olivier Panis was 14th fastest in the second Toyota while Nick Heidfeld was 15th for Jordan.

Takuma Sato was only 16th fastest and only completed eight laps in his BAR, although this is unlikely to be a true indication of his form this afternoon. Christian Klien was 17th in the other Jaguar ahead of a fired up Zsolt Baumgartner in the first of the Minardis. The team missed the first session out of respect for their sporting director John Walton, who died late last night.

Giorgio Pantano was 19th fastest in the second Jordan ahead of Gianmaria Bruni who pulled his Minardi off the track after Copse with a technical problem.