Saturday's qualifying for the British Grand Prix offered the unusual - if expected for some time - sight of the world's fastest cars going as slow as possible in an attempt to benefit from the weather. In the end, however, it did not pay off. Atlas F1's Richard Barnes analyses Saturday's rain dance as well as the weekend's main events

It had to happen eventually, and the only surprising factor in Saturday's 'go slow' pre-qualifying session for the British Grand Prix was that it hadn't happened sooner. A first-time F1 observer might have concluded that the drivers were involved in some absurd form of co-ordinated protest action, with most making no attempt to disguise their intentions of completing the lap as slowly as possible. Instead, it was the pinnacle of motor racing technology's version of the rain dance, a studied ritual performed in the belief that the Heavens would open and reward them for their faith.

If the forces of nature had a sense of humour, a brief shower would have sprinkled the tarmac between the two sessions, rendering the track impossibly greasy for the first half of qualifying and punishing those who had sought to gain from their manipulation.

Alas, poetic justice is a rare event in real life. Instead, the bemused audience had to console themselves with the satisfaction that there was no pay-off for the go-slow drivers. The weather's resolute refusal to bend to the teams' will left the tacticians' decision looking insipid rather than inspired.

As a spectacle it was amusing rather than outrageous, although we can chalk that up to novelty value. Besides, pre-qualifying is ordinarily a mundane and low-key segment of each weekend's action. Nevertheless, the non-event of pre-qualifying was the worst possible advert for the formula, during the most one-sided season in history, and ironically at the very race where a new and improved qualifying format would have been launched if consensus had been reached among the teams and the sport's authorities.

That's a pity because, behind Ferrari's complete domination at the head of the pack, the racing has seldom been more varied and unpredictable. It's become a toss-up to predict whether Renault, BAR, Williams or McLaren will fill the 'best of the rest' slot on any given weekend.

In Constructors' Championship terms, Renault have set themselves up as favourites, by dint of superior reliability and having two equally competitive drivers. In the Drivers' Championship battle, Jenson Button's remarkable consistency has placed him as the leading non-Ferrari driver.

Although Williams and McLaren have had disappointing seasons, both teams have a pedigree of winning and a startling ability to turn ostensibly hopeless situations around in a hurry. Williams showed it from Monaco onwards last season, and McLaren reaffirmed it with renewed competitiveness at Silverstone.

McLaren's new-found form must be distressing for both BAR and Button. After a first half of the season in which BAR had every reason to believe that they would emerge as clear frontrunners to challenge for Ferrari's crown, the Brackley-based outfit find themselves fending off a fresh onslaught from the McLaren-Mercedes juggernaut. If recent history is anything to go by, the smart money must be on the silver cars for the remainder of the year.

Button, in turn, is seeing his very real early-season ambitions being diluted with each race. His consistency is both reassuring and troubling. Reassuring in that he can always expect to be challenging for the minor podium placings, troubling in that he never quite seems able to challenge convincingly for the win. It's the sort of 'always among the best but never quite being the best' syndrome that occasionally plagues English sporting heroes and teams, from Frank Bruno and Tim Henman to the national football and cricket squads.

If Michael Schumacher's awe-inspiring form hadn't already snuffed out Button's dreams of a maiden victory in 2004, then the prospect of Kimi Raikkonen at his best in a vastly improved MP4-19B surely will. Button thoroughly deserves his current third place in the championship, and has finished second, third or fourth in seven of the season's eleven races to date. However, second, third or fourth is not going to get the job done, as Raikkonen himself discovered in 2003.

Button is undoubtedly an accomplished and developing talent. But with Fernando Alonso continuing to develop along with Renault, Kimi Raikkonen rediscovering his 2003 form, Juan Pablo Montoya remaining competitive with his switch to McLaren and Mark Webber surely moving to Williams for 2005, it's an awfully crowded dance-floor. Even Giancarlo Fisichella could join the championship-chasing party if he gets a lucky break and a competitive drive for once in his career.

For Michael Schumacher, even this impressive array of talent is little more than nominal opposition as he marches ever onward to yet more records and titles. Silverstone represented more of the same – different circuit, different tactics, same result. Nevertheless, the German seemed unusually thrilled at his victory on Sunday, and rightly so.

Despite his current overwhelming form, there always seems to be a 'special' reason for the German to celebrate – his 75th GP victory at Spain, his record-setting seventh wins at Canada and France, his 80th career GP victory at Silverstone. But Sunday's victory was more than just another round number in the win tally, it filled an important gap in the German's CV.

It's an understatement to claim that Silverstone has never been Schumacher's favourite circuit. If anything, the track encapsulates the low points of Michael Schumacher's career: the ignominious disqualification in 1994, the collision with Damon Hill a year later, mechanical retirements in 1996 and 1997, the season-ending crash at Stowe in 1999, and the disappointment of seeing bitter rivals McLaren triumph in 2000 and 2001.

Prior to 2004, Schumacher had only ever won twice in Great Britain. One of those was the controversial win in 1998 when he crossed the finish line en route to serving a stop-and-go penalty for overtaking under yellow flag conditions. The other was the cakewalk 1-2 finish in 2002. Sunday's victory proved that Schumacher can win without controversy at Silverstone, even when his main rival (in this case Kimi Raikkonen) is fast enough to beat his teammate Rubens Barrichello. Despite his protestations that traffic hampered his chances, the final race timing flattered Raikkonen. Without the safety car period late in the race, Raikkonen would probably have been some twenty seconds behind Schumacher, not staring at his gearbox.

After the race Ferrari team boss Jean Todt, ever the understated diplomat, claimed "The team now has a 95 point lead over its nearest rival and these figures mean we can approach the remaining seven races of the season with optimism." If Todt was brutally honest, he could rephrase that as "Seven more races and the prospect of seven more Schumacher victories, life doesn't get better than this."

It is of course possible that someone other than Jarno Trulli will break Ferrari's 2004 stranglehold on race wins. If justice is to be served, that someone should be Jenson Button. He has been the model of consistency all year. He has single-handedly taken the constructors' battle to the Renault pairing of Alonso and Trulli, he was the only frontrunner to play it straight during the rain dance on Saturday afternoon, and by his own admission he 'drove his heart out' during the race itself. The Briton deserves that maiden win more than ever.

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