It’s only Friday and the standard mantra is that the times today don’t mean much, but nevertheless, topping the time sheets in both sessions and being the only cars to get under the 1m 20s barrier is definitely a positive start for us.

Sebastian was quickest in the morning and afternoon, while Mark had to stop on track towards the end of the afternoon after an encounter with a kerb cut the electrics on his car. Silverstone is a high speed track and watching the RB5 through the quickest corners was verging on breathtaking today. But feet on the ground, there’s a long way to go until we get to the main event on Sunday.
In the morning, Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello led the charge behind us, but in the afternoon, it was a surprising Adrian Sutil who was third fastest for Force India, with Kazuki Nakajima fourth for Williams. Fernando Alonso was fifth in the Renault and Barrichello was sixth for Brawn.

The non-Brits always like to complain about the weather at Silverstone, but at the moment, the forecast predicts a shower around 11 on Saturday morning, which should just miss the final free practice session, which like the rest of the weekend programme is an hour ahead of usual timings, to tie in with European time.

A large group of Mark Webber’s Supporters Club had a real treat on Thursday night, when they headed into the Buckinghamshire countryside in search of a stag: not just any stag, but Il Maschio (Italian for Stag) the restaurant owned by the Red Bull Racing driver’s partner Ann. Mark took time out from what is inevitably a very busy race weekend schedule to meet them all over pre-dinner drinks, before making a speech as his supporters enjoyed a great meal. Many of them are apparently somewhere out in the crowd at Silverstone.