Silverstone, day 1: Enge dominates

The Czech ace, who finished third in the championship last year, lapped the British venue in 1m35.183s in his Arden Team Russia entry, over half a second clear of Rodrigo Sperafico's Durango Formula example. Enge will jet off to America at the end of today's test to contest the Sebring 12 Hours in a Prodrive Ferrari this weekend.

Giorgio Pantano, dumped by Super Nova in favour of Sebastien Bourdais, was third fastest for Coloni and was two spots ahead of the Frenchman, who complained of a lack of balance from his set-up. Bjorn Wirdheim intersected them in fourth in Arden's second car.

One of the pre-season favourites, Antonio Pizzonia, continues to struggle slightly in his Petrobras Junior Team car. He was seventh quickest, but spun on his second set of tyres on a lap he felt was up to six-tenths quicker.

Reigning champions Nordic Racing were well off the pace. Toyota F1 test driver Ryan Briscoe was 15th, almost 2secs off the fastest time, while team-mate Zsolt Baumgartner failed to record a time in the quicker afternoon session. Also in the wars was Super Nova's second driver Tiago Montiero, whose gearbox broke in the afternoon.


1 Tomas Enge, Arden, 1m35.183s
2 Rodrigo Sperafico, Durango, 1m35.662s
3 Giorgio Pantano, Coloni, 1m35.962s
4 Bjorn Wirdheim, Arden, 1m36.022s
5 Sebastien Bourdais, Super Nova, 1m36.074s
6 Alex Muller, Durango, 1m36.190s
7 Antonio Pizzonia, Petrobras, 1m36.214s
8 Ricardo Mauricio, Red Bull, 1m36.397s
9 Nicolas Kiesa, PSM, 1m36.646s
10 Mario Haberfeld, Astromega, 1m36.684s