Coulthard at sharp end in British GP practice.

Ahead of his final British Grand Prix this weekend, David Coulthard showed he clearly intends going out on a high, by lapping right up at the business end of proceedings in second free practice at Silverstone.

The experienced Scot - who yesterday (Thursday) announced that he will retire from the top flight at the end of the current campaign [see separate story - click here], having achieved an impressive 13 grand prix victories, 62 rostrum finishes and 533 points over the course of his long and successful career, making him the fourth-most successful driver of all time in terms of points racked up - wound up inside the top ten in both of the day's sessions, placing ninth in the morning and a strong fourth in the afternoon.

"[It was] a normal Friday," summarised 37-year-old, who secured back-to-back triumphs for McLaren-Mercedes at the self-styled 'Home of British Motor Racing' in 1999 and 2000. "It was good to get some more running time, after missing a lot of track time at the test due to the various problems we had there. I didn't have a chance to run the option tyre during the test, so that was my first look at it today."

Team-mate Mark Webber was eleventh-quickest in the morning, improving significantly to sit second on the timesheets in the afternoon, albeit more than half a second shy of pace-setter Heikki Kovalainen in the McLaren-Mercedes.

The Aussie was classified seventh overall at the close of play, two spots and barely seven hundredths in front of Coulthard.

"Not a bad afternoon session," Webber concluded. "We had a look at a few different settings, as conditions were not the same as at the test, but that's normal.

"After a small electronic problem this morning, we had some better running this afternoon when I was much happier with the car. Now we'll wait and see what the weather will do tomorrow."