Pre-qual: Jenson fastest

Button produced an excellent lap of 1m18.872s, ahead of Sauber's Felipe Massa and the Toyota of Olivier Panis. Fourth quickest was Jordan's Giorgio Pantano, a couple of tenths ahead of Jarno Trulli (Renault), Kimi Raikkonen (McLaren) and Fernando Alonso (Renault).

Ferrari's Michael Schumacher was first out and, despite an excellent first sector, looked ragged at both Vale and Abbey. He then did the job properly and spun at Priory, where he spun twice this morning. The embarrassed German cross the line 11.4secs behind the pole time - unless he did it on purpose, of course... Barrichello was third on track and understeered off at Vale, losing a couple of seconds.

That was nothing compared to some of the later runners. The Williams duo of Juan Pablo Montoya and Marc Gene were over 16secs off the pace, while the Jaguars were even slower as Mark Webber and Christian Klien chugged across the finish line 16s and 19s off the pole time respectively.

Sauber's Giancarlo Fisichella spun off at Vale and aborted his lap completely, as did Nick Heidfeld, who ran wide at Stowe.

Will it rain or not? Either way, we could have some embarrassed team bosses in one hour's time.