Autosport Plus

Why Red Bull has had a diffuser boost

Teams using Renault engines - including Red Bull - were given a boost at Silverstone after being told that their limitation on off-throttle diffuser blowing would be less than the rest of the field. Mark Hughes analyses what effect this could have on the British Grand Prix weekend

The action in the press conference, as Christian Horner and Martin Whitmarsh argued about the latest technical directive regarding blowing diffusers, comfortably overshadowed that on the track where only slivers of significant form emerged from the gloom of two rain-afflicted Friday practice sessions.

Intermediates were the tyres of choice for the field during both the morning and the afternoon and the timesheets - particularly those of the second free practice session - reflected only who was best placed in the dying seconds of the session to take fullest advantage of a drying track. That happened to be Felipe Massa in the afternoon, but nothing too much should be read into that.