Button impressive in practice

Jenson Button raised home crowd hopes today by going faster than his racing rivals in first practice for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

The BAR-Honda driver was third overall, behind McLaren’s Pedro de la Rosa and Toyota’s Ricardo Zonta, but crucially he was ahead of all 19 race drivers.

With engine restrictions in place for race drivers, Formula One’s Friday testers shouldered the burden this morning.

De la Rosa continued his run of fast Fridays this season for McLaren, clocking over 20 laps to relieve the pressure on Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya.

The Spaniard set a fastest lap of one minute 19.205 seconds to out pace fellow tester Zonta by almost a session, with Button marginally further back.

Raikkonen continued to show ominous form in his McLaren by setting the fourth fastest time in practice for a race which he is tipped to win.

Ralf Schumacher was fifth for Toyota with the other McLaren of Montoya sixth. World champion Michael Schumacher, who was lucky to escape damage when running into the back of Nick Heidfeld’s Williams in the pit lane, was seventh for Ferrari.

David Coulthard, fresh from signing a new one-year contract at Red Bull, just missed out on the top 10, ending the one-hour session in 11th.

As has become traditional this season, world championship leader Fernando Alonso failed to set a lap.

Severe penalties are imposed for engine changes this season and Renault have taken to protecting the Spaniard and team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella, leaving them to sit out the session in the garage.