Bernie Ecclestone has said that if rain falls during today's Grand Prix, it would be "a disaster", however, reflecting on Ross Brawn's smug grin following yesterday's qualifying session, it might be the only thing to prevent another Ferrari red-wash.

Kimi Raikkonen might be on pole, but there a huge question-marks, not only over the MP4-19B's reliability, or more importantly that of its power-plant, but also fuel strategy the silver and black cars are running.

Jenson Button, sporting his new helmet, which bears the cross of St George, will be hoping that the partisan crowd will give him the same boost previously experienced by Hunt, Mansell and Hill, while teammate Takuma Say would love to upstage the 'local hero'.

Jarno Trulli is at the right end of the grid, as is Juan Pablo Montoya, but in all honesty it is the two red cars, particularly the one bearing the number 'one' that start favourites.

As the cars prepare to begin the warm-up lap, the ambient temperature is 17 degrees C, while the track temperature is 28 degrees, almost ideal conditions for the Bridgestones.

The cars head off on the warm-up lap, each driver working furiously, generating heat in his tyres. Nobody opts to start from the pitlane.

They all get away cleanly, one of the Jaguars taking to the grass, as Montoya goes very wide at Copse. The Montoya keeps going and immediately starts challenging Sato.

At the end of the first lap Raikkonen leads Barrichello by 3.5s, with Button third ahead of Schumacher, Trulli, Coulthard, Sato and Montoya. Alonso is already up to fourteenth.

Raikkonen is fighting to control the car, it's a real handful, but he still posts a fastest lap. He extends his lead to 4.3s.

Meanwhile Sato goes wide at Becketts, which allows Montoya through, as Schumacher struggles to keep Trulli at bay.

Next time around its Barrichello that goes quickest, as he extends the gap to Button to 1.5s. The Englishman has Michael Schumacher nibbling at his rear.

Another fastest lap for Barrichello, who is now 4.1s behind Raikkonen. While Klien makes a great move on Pantano to take fourteenth.

Trulli loses ground to Schumacher, and consequently is falling into the clutches of Coulthard, as Sato seems to be losing masses of ground to Montoya.

Raikkonen leads by 4s at the end of lap 6, as Barrichello posts another fastest lap. Button is a further 2.3s behind with Schumacher right behind and Trulli a further 5s down the road. As Coulthard shadows Trulli, Montoya closes up on the Scot's gearbox.

Yet another fastest lap from Barrichello as he closes to within 3.8s of the Finn. Meanwhile Michael goes quickest in the first sector.

At the end of lap 8, Alonso pits. He's out again 7.7s later.

At the end of lap 9, Barrichello pits, 8.2s later he's heading back down the pitlane. Gene also stops.