Mark Hughes: Trackside View

This is not Interlagos! Grey skies, cool wind and spits of rain: it's more like an October Brands Hatch, minus the smell of burgers and onions. It's Friday afternoon, early in the session and Mark Webber's Red Bull is the only car on the track. From the Senna Esses you can hear virtually his entire lap, fading now as he nears the end of the second sector, the place so quiet you can hear the chat in the grandstands.

But it's not the cheering, partying sounds of a sunny Interlagos. There are no samba drums, no chants. Just routine slightly bored chat. The breeze blows about your ears and here's Webber again, his progress trailed by a sequence of camera flashlights from the grandstand; that's how dull the light is. It's like the calm before what will be an electrifying storm two days later.

Fernando Alonso slides out of the pitlane, I mean literally slides, a twirl of opposite lock around the right hander at the bottom of the pitlane hill, a blur of gloves, a cough of traction control and away he goes. Adrian Sutil's out there now, letting the Spyker flow in the dryish groove between the blankets of damp either side of the line through the Esses.

He has the confidence and feel not to jump on every bit of wayward movement in the car, only reacting to the relevant bits. Alonso's monstering that first inner kerb, these his first laps of the weekend.

Kazuki Nakajima runs out wide, too ambitious with his entry speed, having to get right out of the throttle as he gathers it up just before the grass. He continues on his way, chastised by the ill-tempered mood of a track mirroring the weather. A couple of laps later he's back on it, chasing his possible future, the Williams twitching nastily as he changes up on the damp exit. Lewis Hamilton goes out, yellow helmet vivid against the unremittingly grey surroundings.

He does a dummy start at the end of the pitlane, stuttering engine note echoing off the walls. He's a few laps into his run when Kimi Raikkonen comes out ahead of him, the Ferrari taking a while to get enough tyre temperature to get up to speed.

Hamilton's harrying him for all he's worth, Kimi's acting like he's not there, like he's never even heard of Hamilton. A lap later and still they are in the same position and a whole barrage of flashlights now go off as they race along the back stretch down to turn four.