Raikkonen first in downbeat practice session

Minardi chose not to run their cars in the first of this morning’s practice sessions for the British Grand Prix out of respect for sporting director John Walton, who died late yesterday.

Walton, partner of ITV presenter Louise Goodman, suffered a heart attack in the early hours of Monday morning before passing away at the age of 46 with his family at his bedside at St Thomas’ Hospital, London.

The shock news was delivered to the rest of the team this morning as they arrived at Silverstone. As a mark of respect drivers Gianmaria Bruni and Zsolt Baumgartner did not take to the track following a decision taken by team principal Paul Stoddart.

The 45-minute run then proved to be a fairly muted affair, with Kimi Raikkonen again topping the timesheets, just as he did yesterday at the end of the initial two hour-long sessions.

The Finn, gaining confidence in a revamped McLaren, clocked one minute 19.315 seconds for the 5.141km circuit, albeit seven-tenths-of-a-second slower than yesterday.

The good news for Jenson Button fans was the Brit was second quickest in his BAR, and 0.153secs adrift, with Michael Schumacher third in his Ferrari and a further tenth down.

The six-times world champion, however, proved he is fallible when he put the right rear wheel of his Ferrari on the grass coming out of Priory before spinning at Brooklands.

Ferrari team-mate Rubens Barrichello, Juan Pablo Montoya in the BMW Williams and Jarno Trulli in the Renault completed the top six, with David Coulthard down in seventh in the second McLaren.