By ROB HARRISAP Sports Writer
For the first time in more than a decade, Silverstone will host a pair of British Formula One title contenders and Sunday's race comes a year after it seemed the circuit might not witness such a duel again.
Just six points separate Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button at the top of the championship standings as they prepare for their first home grand prix as McLaren teammates at the midway point of the season.
Never before have Hamilton and Button raced against each other in competitive cars in front of 120,000 home fans. And those fans have not seen British drivers dominate at Silverstone since 1999 when David Coulthard and Eddie Irvine produced a one-two finish.
``We are here to fight against each other,'' said Button, the 30-year-old defending world champion. ``I've won in Monaco and I've won the world championship, so winning my home grand prix is the one thing that is missing from my CV.''
Although Button fell short at Silverstone last year finishing sixth in his Brawn the points helped him win the championship in his 10th year.
Hamilton's last trip to Silverstone as defending world and race champion epitomized his forlorn 2009 season, with his slow McLaren qualifying 19th and limping home 16th in the race.
It seemed the 25-year-old Hamilton wouldn't get a chance to redeem for that poor performance, with Silverstone losing the British F1 hosting rights to Donington Park. But Silverstone _ two hours north of London regained the race in December after Donington hit financial problems. The circuit has been revamped to make it longer and increase passing opportunities.
Until Friday's first practice session, the closest the drivers will get to testing the upgraded circuit is on a computer simulator and Hamilton has struggled so far.
``On my first lap I missed out the new section and continued on as normal,'' Hamilton said. ``It took a lap longer than normal to get used to not going up to Abbey and turning left but going right onto the new section.''
Not only Silverstone has been upgraded, but so have the McLaren cars as they try to hold off the Red Bull challenge.
McLaren will introduce its own version of the blown diffuser, which assists airflow and has helped Red Bull claim eight of nine poles this season.
“Often when you bring an upgrade package it doesn't do exactly what you expect,'' Hamilton said. ``We'll have to see exactly which parts work and which parts don't. It's not something you can just put on the car it takes a while to optimize it. We haven't had the chance to test it yet and need to make sure we get the optimum from it.''
While Hamilton and Button have each won two races this season _ so have Red Bull duo Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber.
``We can't go into it thinking we're the favorites because the Red Bull, as it stands, is definitely the fastest car,'' Hamilton said.
Vettel, who led home Webber in a one-two Red Bull finish at Silverstone last year, dominated from the pole to win the last grand prix at Valencia on June 27.
Vettel is third in the championship, 12 points behind Hamilton, while Webber is fourth, another 12 points back.
And the spotlight has been on the Vettel-Webber relationship since a costly run-in at Istanbul in May when Vettel made contact with Webber and spun while trying to pass for the lead.
``Some people thought it was the end of the world, but it wasn't,'' Webber said. ``In the short term, he lost more out of it than I did. But the whole team has learnt from the situation, including the drivers to a degree.
``It would be totally unrealistic for me to say our relationship is exactly the same, because when we're pushing the boundaries and lifting the bar very high for the team, when there's quite a bit at stake, relationships will be strained.''
If Webber and Vettel think they have problems, they are nothing compared to those being experienced by seven-time champion Michael Schumacher. The German's 15th-place finish at Valencia was the worst of his 258-race career, representing a new low in his comeback season for Mercedes.
``Silverstone represents a special race for us as it is so close to everyone at our factories who are all working like hell to make up for the quite difficult start into the season we have experienced,'' said Schumacher, a three-time British GP winner.
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