Coming as it does so soon after the Goodwood Festival of Speed, it is inevitable that comparisons will be made between it and the British Grand Prix, held just a week later at Silverstone.

On the one hand, for a modest price, some 150,000 fans had three days of close-quarter access to a pantheon of the greats representing the whole spectrum of motorsport since its inception. Contrast this with the sorry affair that is currently labelled the British Grand Prix - charged with politics, expensive and remote. Excesses of commercialism and technical innovation have removed much of the thrill and spectacle; a lack of overtaking (other than in the pits), and traction control have seen to that.

So I, for one, am sanguine about the possibility of losing the fixture to China, Russia or Bahrain. If those destinations merit consideration over Britain then clearly the decision criteria has nothing to do with giving a knowledgeable paying public what they want - more to do with maximising revenue from whatever sources it can be derived.

Should the GP be lost to us I would hazard a guess that the gap will be quickly filled from "across the pond", where the offering would be more recognisable to the majority of fans as motor racing.

So what then of this last British GP - all of the teams had been practicing hard since Magny Cours, none more so than Ferrari, who had urgent discussions with Bridgestone resulting in their testing a multiplicity of different tyre compounds at Fiorano, Mugello and Barcelona.

Friday's pre-qualifying was somewhat overcast with light drizzle and resulted in Michael Schumacher setting fastest time with the usual protagonists there or thereabouts. Barrichello was unfortunate enough to spin and therefore had the dubious honour of going out first on Saturday's final qualifying.

Saturday dawned dry but windy and as it strengthened throughout the final qualifying session it adversely affected the times of the faster drivers, resulting in a different grid line-up from usual. Barrichello, who went out first, set what was to be pole time, Coulthard, Alonso and Panis all had lack-lustre runs, whilst Button did not complete his lap, having suffered front suspension failure after running wide and clouting a kerb.

Thus it was that the first six grid positions were 1. Barrichello, 2. Trulli, 3. Raikkonen, 4. R Schumacher, 5. M Schumacher, 6. da Matta, raising the prospect of some serious racing if any of the Championship contenders were to add to their points total.

Sunday dawned dry but overcast, with an air temperature of 19 degrees. Barrichello led off on the warm-up lap but Trulli held back, causing the pole-sitter's tyres to cool off on the line before the start. The dash for the first corner saw the usual scramble resulting in changes of position with Trulli, Raikkonen, Barrichello, R Schumacher, M Schumacher and Montoya occupying the first six places.

On lap five the safety car was deployed whilst marshalls cleared the remains of Coulthard's head restraint from the track at Copse whilst the driver pitted for a replacement, dropping him to the back of the field. Racing resumed and by lap eight Button had come through the field to eleventh place.

The safety car was again deployed on lap thirteen whilst the marshalls removed an idiot who was wandering about on Hangar Straight. This caused a wholesale dash for the pits to re-fuel and when racing resumed the order was topsy-turvy, with M Schumacher back in fourteenth and Raikkonen in the lead.

Ralf Schumacher, who had initially run very well, dropped off the pace with tyre-balance problems and never featured amongst the front-runners thereafter.

In a race full of audacious overtaking moves, the driver of the day had to be Barrichello, who put an excellent move on R Schumacher early in the race and likewise on Raikkonen for the lead after the second round of pit stops. Montoya also made a determined move on Raikkonen for second place, whilst Michael Schumacher, having been initially held up by Villeneuve, had been steadily working his way up the field to fourth place with Coulthard contesting, and taking, fifth place from Trulli.

So, after sixty laps of action-packed racing the final results were 1st Barrichello, 2nd Montoya, 3rd Raikkonen, 4th M Schumacher and fifth Coulthard, a result which keeps Michael Schumacher ahead in the Drivers' Championship table and Ferrari ahead in the Constructors' Championship.

The 75,000 or so spectators for once got their money's worth, with a feast of overtaking on what is one of the widest and fastest tracks in the Grand Prix calendar. Race car reliability is also another feature of this season's races, with Silverstone's only retirements being Pizzonia, Alonso and Fisichella.

Far from threatening the demise of the British Grand prix at Silverstone, a few more races on circuits affording this number of overtaking opportunities would do much to revive interest in Formula One, so maybe - it's not the last time!!

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In the way - no wonder Bernie's trying to get rid of Silverstone

Michael had to endure cricket for sponsor Vodafone

The cars may be no good, but the Jordan pit-popsies aren't too bad

The serious stuff - how will the Bridgestones perform?

Renault's launch control shoots Trulli into the lead

Multiple Safety Car periods filled the pit lane

MS gets stuck behind RB in the pits and drops down to fifteenth

Schuey's move on Alonso was a little unkind

It has to be said that Rubens drove a great race!

Don't blink - there's two Toyotas in the lead

Well-deserved win for Barrichello

pics by Schlegelmilch, Sutton & Ferrari