Heavy showers made for difficult running in the morning but by the afternoon a dry line had developed and the Bridgestone cars dominated the top ten. Rubens Barrichello finished fastest overall with a lap time of 1:31.457, closely followed by his team mate Michael Schumacher.

It was a good day for Honda-supplied teams with Giancarlo Fisichella and Takuma Sato 3rd and 5th for Jordan, and Jacques Villeneuve 6th for BAR. Both Sauber cars also made the top ten.

Hisao Suganuma, technical manager of Bridgestone Motorsport, said in a press release: "All three of our rain tyre specifications were tried today and overall the results look good. In particular, the intermediates are working well. If it rains tomorrow and on Sunday, I think we can be fairly confident."

In anticipation of rain and changing temperatures this weekend, Bridgestone has brought two types of intermediate tyre to Silverstone and one normal wet weather tyre. Should the weather improve for qualifying and the race, Bridgestone's five teams will have two new specifications of dry weather tyre to choose from.

Suganuma added: "We will have a busy afternoon and evening going through the huge amount of information we have gathered today. In particular, the lap times will help us work out the crossover point between wet tyre to intermediate and from intermediate to dry so we can recommend to our teams the best option."