Red Bull Racing shrugged off the technical row that has so far cast a shadow over the British Grand Prix weekend by locking out the front row of the Silverstone grid.

On the sunlit morning after the French Grand Prix of 1976 three fine and seasoned racers took the short ferry ride from their hotel on the islet of Bandol.

Rain put a dampener on practice for the British Grand Prix today with Red Bull's Mark Webber fastest in the morning and Ferrari's Felipe Massa on top of largely meaningless timesheets after lunch.

The British Grand Prix is one of the highlights of the Formula One calendar, not least given the support of the public as a crowd of over 300,000 is expected over the course of the three days.

Five years ago winning the British GP-supporting GP2 race triggered the first bouts of "Hamiltonmania" as Lewis Hamilton stormed to victory. This weekend 24-year-old Sam Bird is fervently hoping that a similar performance can cement his growing status as the next Briton likely to race a Formula One ride.

If all Formula One races were run on tracks as infernally dull and uninvolving as the one here, the FIA might as well hand another world champion's trophy to Sebastian Vettel right now and forget the rest of the season.

The European Grand Prix proved to be a stroll in the Spanish sunshine for Sebastian Vettel as he claimed his sixth win from eight races this season to strengthen his stranglehold on the Formula One world championship.

Formula One's motor-racing teams are considering whether to join forces to take a stake in the private-equity-owned Grand Prix business.

Sebastian Vettel again destroyed the field in qualifying ahead of tomorrow's European Grand Prix as he clinched his seventh pole in eight races this season.