RED Bull Racing are threatening to scupper Jenson Button's British Grand Prix dream after trouncing their rivals in yesterday's practice.
Ordinarily, not too much is read into Friday practice times as you can never be certain as to fuel level, tyre usage and wear, as well as potentially any new parts being tested on a car, but after the two 90-minute sessions at Silverstone, it is fair
to assume Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber will be the class act of the field tomorrow with their cars sporting a number of upgrades, in particular a new nose dubbed 'duck breast'.
In both the morning and afternoon, the duo were head and shoulders above the rest of the field, with Vettel on top on each occasion, narrowly edging out Webber.
The young German's fastest lap of the day came in the dying embers of first practice, knocking Webber off top spot with a lap of one minute 19.4 seconds, with the 21-year-old only 0.056secs slower in the second session.
Australian Webber, who finished 0.282secs adrift in the morning, managed to exactly halve that deficit later on, but, as for the rest, they were left floundering.
The first period saw Button third-fastest, but 0.827secs down on Vettel, and then in the second it was the remarkable sight of Force India's Adrian Sutil riding high in third, albeit 0.685secs down. Williams' Kazuki Nakajima was fourth, followed by Fernando Alonso in his Renault and title hopeful Rubens Barrichello for Brawn GP.
As for world champion Lewis Hamilton, who won the race here last year by a remarkable margin of 68 seconds in the wet, he was a respectable seventh in his McLaren, just under a second down. The top ten was completed by Toyota's Jarno Trulli, Nico Rosberg in his Williams and the Renault of Nelson Piquet.
Robert Kubica, bottom of the standings in the morning, managed to climb to a more respectable 11th in the afternoon for BMW Sauber, with McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen again 12th. Current championship leader Button, aiming for his seventh win in eight races, was a surprisingly lowly 14th with a time 1.311secs adrift of Vettel, however with his car clearly more in race trim.
Towards the bottom, in 17th and 18th, were the Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen, with Toro Rosso's Sebastien Buemi at the rear and lagging behind by 2.212secs.
Away from the track, another battle is underway as Donington Park CEO Simon Gillett is adamant he will not require Bernie Ecclestone's safety net and his circuit will host next year's British Grand Prix.
British Racing Drivers' Club chairman Robert Brooks yesterday expressed his grave concern the race could be lost forever if Gillett is forced to take up Ecclestone's offer of a sabbatical.
Ecclestone recently announced if Donington was unable to stage the event due to delays in their multi-million-pound redevelopment, it could take a year off before returning to the calendar in 2011.
Brooks, whose organisation owns Silverstone, cast doubts on Donington's business model and does not believe they will be ready for 2010.
Pouring cold water on Brooks' remarks, Gillett said: "Robert has his business plans and he is understanding of what can happen, but we have ours, and if they differ, they differ.
We're confident we will be there for 2010."
