Grand Prix of Germany, Practise Sessions 1, 2, 3 | Video

Heikki Kovalainen set the pace for McLaren in the final free practice session at Hockenheim.

The Finn beat Ferrari’s Felipe Massa by 0.072 seconds at the end of
the session, with Lewis Hamilton taking third ahead of Renault’s
Fernando Alonso and the consistently impressive Sebastian Vettel (Toro
Rosso).

Even before the late soft tyre runs, Kovalainen had been the man to
beat for much of the session. He usurped early pace-setter Vettel with
a 1:16.219 lap – 0.213 seconds quicker than the Toro Rosso – after 20
minutes, and then went 0.361 seconds faster on his next run a quarter
of an hour later.

That kept the Finn on top until Massa bolted on a fresh set of
harder tyres with 17 minutes to go and improved to 1:15.693, one and a
half tenths clear of Kovalainen.

But when the field switched to the softer compound Bridgestones for
their last runs, Kovalainen found more time and edged Massa out of
first position by lapping in 1:15.621, while the Brazilian failed to
improve on his final flying lap.

Kovalainen’s teammate Hamilton had to settle for third, having gone
off the road briefly on the way out of the stadium section on his final
run.

Vettel battled with the front-runners throughout the session and
looked set for fourth until Alonso snuck ahead of him in the closing
seconds.

Nelson Piquet put the second Renault seventh, behind Jarno Trulli’s
Toyota, with Mark Webber (Red Bull), Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) and Nico
Rosberg (Williams) completing the top ten, the latter having briefly
been quickest in the early running.

Raikkonen was delayed by yellow flags on his first soft tyre run
then had a sideways moment on his second, leaving him 0.759 seconds off
the pace.

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time              Laps
 1.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:15.621           18
 2.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:15.693 + 0.072   21
 3.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:15.839 + 0.218   21
 4.  Alonso        Renault             (B)  1:15.943 + 0.322   18
 5.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:16.037 + 0.416   24
 6.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:16.133 + 0.512   25
 7.  Piquet        Renault             (B)  1:16.161 + 0.540   21
 8.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:16.196 + 0.575   19
 9.  Raikkonen     Ferrari             (B)  1:16.380 + 0.759   19
10.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:16.405 + 0.784   20
11.  Button        Honda               (B)  1:16.447 + 0.826   22
12.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:16.515 + 0.894   19
13.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:16.530 + 0.909   18
14.  Glock         Toyota              (B)  1:16.636 + 1.015   27
15.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:16.808 + 1.187   23
16.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber          (B)  1:16.906 + 1.285   24
17.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:16.938 + 1.317   20
18.  Barrichello   Honda               (B)  1:17.189 + 1.568   20
19.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:17.312 + 1.691   22
20.  Kubica        BMW Sauber          (B)  1:17.469 + 1.848   15

Another muddled up final practise and it seems Kimi was doing long runs on fuel as usual, but he didn’t look quick on the soft tyres. So hopefully in qualifying, he’ll stick to running heavy so in the race he can perform better with the tyres

| Free Practise 2 – Hamilton Half A Second Quicker Than Ferraris in Dry

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton was fastest again in second practice at Hockenheim – this time beating the Ferraris by over six tenths of a second in dry weather.

Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen took second and third, ahead of Hamilton’s teammate Heikki Kovalainen.

After the morning rain, the second session saw completely dry track conditions, and was comparatively uneventful given the frenetic activity of the damp opening practice.

Hamilton had a near-miss with the slowing Toro Rosso of Sebastien Bourdais on his first run before setting a benchmark time of 1:15.817, which proved good enough to keep the Briton at the head of the pack for much of the rest of the session.

Massa edged increasingly close to the McLaren’s time, though, and after 50 minutes he edged ahead with a 1:15.722 lap. Hamilton responded with a 1:15.739 shortly afterwards – which wasn’t quite sufficient to topple the Ferrari – while Massa fell 0.011 seconds shy of his existing time when he re-emerged on soft tyres in the final minutes.

But Hamilton’s last run of the afternoon, also on softs, proved much more productive, as he produced a 1:15.025 with one minute to go and put himself 0.697 seconds clear of Massa.

Raikkonen looked set to beat Massa to second until losing time in the stadium section on his best lap, so had to settle for third ahead of Kovalainen.

Mark Webber put a slightly troubled afternoon behind him to take a promising fifth for Red Bull with his last lap.

Having earlier been delayed by a clutch problem in the garage and then a trip over the gravel at the final corner, he vaulted up on the order on soft tyres in the closing seconds, pushing long-time ‘best of the rest’ man Fernando Alonso (Renault) down to sixth.

Williams’s Nico Rosberg was seventh, ahead of the two BMWs, with Robert Kubica recovering from his morning crash to outpace Nick Heidfeld. David Coulthard completed the top ten in the second Red Bull.

Sebastian Vettel was as high as third for Toro Rosso early in the session, but ultimately slipped back to 11th. His teammate Bourdais again lost mileage to technical problems and was 18th. In a largely serene session, Timo Glock proved some entertainment by getting his Toyota briefly airborne in a trip over the grass, while Rubens Barrichello spun his Honda at both the first corner and the Spitzkehre.

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time              Laps
 1.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:15.025            37
 2.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:15.722  + 0.697   31
 3.  Raikkonen     Ferrari             (B)  1:15.760  + 0.735   34
 4.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:15.990  + 0.965   37
 5.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:16.017  + 0.992   25
 6.  Alonso        Renault             (B)  1:16.230  + 1.205   38
 7.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:16.355  + 1.330   41
 8.  Kubica        BMW Sauber          (B)  1:16.363  + 1.338   36
 9.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber          (B)  1:16.377  + 1.352   40
10.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:16.378  + 1.353   35
11.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:16.422  + 1.397   41
12.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:16.530  + 1.505   45
13.  Button        Honda               (B)  1:16.542  + 1.517   38
14.  Barrichello   Honda               (B)  1:16.677  + 1.652   28
15.  Piquet        Renault             (B)  1:16.734  + 1.709   42
16.  Glock         Toyota              (B)  1:16.781  + 1.756   44
17.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:16.829  + 1.804   21
18.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:16.860  + 1.835   14
19.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:17.008  + 1.983   39
20.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:17.047  + 2.022   37

| Friday Quotes – Kimi Keeping Cool

"Friday’s results always need to be looked at with a degree of caution as you never know for certain what the other teams were doing and today is no exception to that rule," said Raikkonen.

"For our part, we tried to improve the set-up of the car compared to the point we had reached at the end of the test and we found, especially towards the end of the day, a few settings that could be interesting.

"So, I am reasonably pleased with how things went and I think that there is still room for improvement.

"The times of our main rivals? As I said at the start, there are too many question marks to be certain: what I can say is that we will be competitive, especially as right up until the final minutes, the times were all very similar."

Ferrari Team Quotes

"All in all, it was a good day," Massa said. "We were always competitive, as were our main rivals. It won’t be a stroll in the park, but we can take them on. We also worked on a wet track and I feel I can claim we will be on the pace in any conditions.

"There was not much difference, today at least, in pure performance terms between the hard and soft tyres but I think the latter will be a little bit quicker still and will definitely be the right choice for qualifying. Now we have to study our data to be in the best possible shape for both qualifying and the race."

Luca Baldisserri: "It’s positive to start a race
weekend doing so many kilometres without experiencing any technical
problems. We worked from a good starting point having run at this track
for three days last week. The pecking order seems similar to that at
the test, with our car pretty competitive over a long run. Now we will
analyse all the data we have to be as well prepared as possible for
qualifying, which involves a degree of uncertainty over the weather,
although it is not expected to rain for the race."

| Video – Long Onboard Kimi (No Commentary!)

     http://www.viddler.com/simple/421dd931/

| Free Practise 1 – Hamilton Leads Damp First Session

Lewis Hamilton led teammate Heikki Kovalainen in a McLaren-Mercedes one-two in a damp first practice session for the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim.

Ferrari duo Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen ended up third and fifth, sandwiching Renault’s Fernando Alonso, as positions changed constantly in the latter stages as the track conditions improved.

The track had remained wet for the first half of the session, with early morning rain being followed by a further shower and drizzle shortly after practice began.

Sebastian Vettel (Toro Rosso), Hamilton and Alonso – all on intermediates – swapped the top spot initially, with Hamilton escaping a quick spin across the grass at Turn 4 without drama or damage, before the Ferraris moved to the front after 35 minutes.

With the rain having eased off by that time, each new flying lap set a new benchmark, as times tumbled and positions changed relentlessly.

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time              Laps
 1.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:15.537            22
 2.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:15.666  + 0.129   19
 3.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:15.796  + 0.259   22
 4.  Alonso        Renault             (B)  1:16.163  + 0.626   22
 5.  Raikkonen     Ferrari             (B)  1:16.327  + 0.790   23
 6.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:16.606  + 1.069   27
 7.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:16.618  + 1.081   25
 8.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber          (B)  1:16.719  + 1.182   20
 9.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:16.821  + 1.284   26
10.  Piquet        Renault             (B)  1:17.063  + 1.526   26
11.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:17.108  + 1.571   18
12.  Button        Honda               (B)  1:17.131  + 1.594   28
13.  Glock         Toyota              (B)  1:17.185  + 1.648   28
14.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:17.268  + 1.731   11
15.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:17.471  + 1.934   30
16.  Barrichello   Honda               (B)  1:17.500  + 1.963   24
17.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:17.556  + 2.019   29
18.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:17.784  + 2.247   29
19.  Kubica        BMW Sauber          (B)  1:18.779  + 3.242    8
20.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:21.506  + 5.969   16