The penultimate British Grand Prix at Silverstone looks as if it could be influenced by rain and wind, adding a meteorological element of chance to what should otherwise be a close battle between the Ferraris of Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa and the McLaren Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen.

If the wet weather materialises, however, the race will become unpredictable and could produce an unexpected result, with wet-weather specialists in slower cars, such as Fernando Alonso in a Renault and Jenson Button in a Honda, looking to take advantage.

The big development in two sessions of dry Friday practice was a dose of cruel luck for Massa, who starts qualifying today as the championship leader for the first time in his career, after inheriting victory from Raikkonen in the French Grand Prix two weeks ago when the Finn’s exhaust system failed.

Massa has travelled to Northamptonshire looking to build on his lead, but his weekend went awry with half an hour to go in the first session when his F2008 Ferrari skidded at high speed on oil left on the racing line from the exploding engine of Alonso’s Renault. Massa’s car twitched and then slewed off the track and across the gravel into the tyre barrier at Stowe Corner, hitting a wall. The Brazilian hit it with the back of his car, leaving him shaken but otherwise uninjured. The impact caused serious damage to Massa’s Ferrari, which ended his session. Despite his crash, he topped the timesheets in the morning but could only run eighth fastest in the afternoon, when he struggled with a car that looked unbalanced.

Massa is a much-improved driver who is not particularly noted as a wet-weather specialist, so he could be facing a tough test this weekend.

“It was a big crash,” he said. “I didn’t see any [warning] flags and I approached the corner in the usual way and then I totally lost control of the car under braking.” Raikkonen, meanwhile, who is third in the title race, five points adrift of his teammate, ran fourth in the morning and then twelfth in the afternoon when he was struggling to find a good set-up.

Over at McLaren, Hamilton and Kovalainen’s race team had wet weather in mind as they ran through their own practice with Kovalainen second in the morning and then fastest in the afternoon and Hamilton third in both sessions. Martin Whitmarsh, the McLaren chief executive, said the team’s forecasting suggested rain for tomorrow and maybe today.



Practice times

First session: 1, F Massa (Br, Ferrari) 1min 19.575sec; 2, H Kovalainen (Fin, McLaren Mercedes) 1:19.587; 3, L Hamilton (GB, McLaren Mercedes) 1:19.623; 4, K Raikkonen (Fin, Ferrari) 1:19.948; 5, R Kubica (Pol, BMW Sauber) 1:20.367; 6, F Alonso (Sp, Renault) 1:20.436; 7, S Vettel (Ger, Toro Rosso Ferrari) 1:20.588; 8, N Piquet (Br, Renault) 1:20.653; 9, D Coulthard (GB, RedBull Renault) 1:20.698; 10, N Rosberg (Ger, Williams Toyota) 1:20.744; 11, M Webber (Aus, RedBull Renault) 1:20.892; 12, T Glock (Ger, Toyota) 1:21.102; 13, N Heidfeld (Ger, BMW Sauber) 1:21.107; 14, S Bourdais (Fr, Toro Rosso Ferrari) 1:21.166; 15, J Trulli (It, Toyota) 1:21.265; 16, K Nakajima (Japan, Williams Toyota) 1:21.282; 17, J Button (GB, Honda) 1:21.901; 18, A Sutil (Ger, Force India Ferrari) 1:22.169; 19, G Fisichella (It, Force India Ferrari) 1:22.219; 20, R Barrichello (Br, Honda) 1:24.123.

Second session: 1, Kovalainen 1:19.989; 2, Webber 1:20.520; 3, Hamilton 1:20.543; 4, Coulthard 1:20.589; 5, Rosberg 1:20.748; 6, Vettel 1:20.805; 7, Button 1:20.929; 8, Massa 1:20.943; 9, Nakajima 1:20.985; 10, Barrichello 1:21.002; 11, Kubica 1:21.023; 12, Raikkonen 1:21.275; 13, Heidfeld 1:21.453; 14, Glock 1:21.472; 15, Alonso 1:21.511; 16, Fisichella 1:21.520; 17, Bourdais 1:21.634; 18, Piquet Jr 1:21.642; 19, Sutil 1:21.756; 20, Trulli 1:22.196.