British Grand Prix preview

For the two leading drivers in Formula One and eight of the 12 teams, the British Grand Prix is their home race. Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button have been on a ten day media junket, which started with them paint balling against London's Fleet Street press - talk about the hunters and the hunted - and came to a head when an 11 year-old child from the Great Ormond Street Hospital asked the pair "Have you had a bet between yourselves as to which of of you will be world champion?" No, they hadn't and maybe they should, they agreed. The pair talked about conceding the keys to their favourite road cars, before young Carl Hillis piped up again: "Why don't you just flush the loser's head down the toilet?"

So far, the only bruises the McLaren duo show are down to that paint balling trip - five days on Lewis still winces when he sits down - but if they put one over the other this weekend in front of their adoring crowd, the tension is likely to build a la Red Bull Racing. Playground spats like head flushing are not unknown, even in this most sophisticated of sports.

Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel are both equally fancied for victory at Silverstone. Vettel took a peerless win here in 2009. The RB6 is custom made for the former RAF base's flat-out curves. It loves fast turns so much it wants to cover them in baby oil and rub up against them.

But the McLaren could well be similarly tuned this weekend, for it's getting a major aero upgrade that will include a 'blown exhaust' just like Red Bull's that will help suck it to the track.

Button has never been on the podium at Silverstone. "I've won the world championship, I've won in Monaco, and I'm desperate to get my hands on this trophy," he revealed at a press conference on Tuesday. "Lewis and I are both winners and we both want to win. We're going to fight it out."