Rain master Adrian Sutil topped the times for Force India in a wet first practice session at Hockenheim, while his close friend Lewis Hamilton got caught out by a puddle and crashed his McLaren heavily.
Sutil, one of six Germans in the field, always shines in adverse conditions and finished more than 1.1s ahead of the competition after clocking a 1m25.701s with four of the 90 minutes remaining.
Ferrari’s Felipe Massa brushed off numerous spins to set the second fastest time, and Jenson Button was third despite being less than complimentary about his McLaren’s handling in the middle part of the session.
Button and team-mate Hamilton were both trying out McLaren’s revised exhaust-blown diffuser, which proved troublesome in Friday practice at Silverstone but which the team believes will deliver big performance gains if the knock-on effects on handling and heat management can be overcome.
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F1 Standings Ahead of German Grand Prix
Formula 1: Adrian Sutil Fastest in First Practice at Hockenheim
Hamilton had only completed eight laps when he crashed with 23 minutes of the session remaining. ITV
Jenson Button retrieved things somewhat for McLaren right at the end, shooting up from the depths of the timesheets to third with 1m 26.936s, and he was followed by Rubens Barrichello on 1m 26.947s and Vitaly Petrov on 1m 26.948s, for Williams and Renault respectively.
Nico Rosberg was sixth for Mercedes GP on 1m 27.448s, then there was a jump to Sebastien Buemi on 1m 28.114s in the Toro Rosso. He was chased by Nico Hulkenberg, who was fast all the way through in the second Williams, on 1m 28.193s, Vitantonio Liuzzi in the second Force India on 1m 28.300s, Pedro de la Rosa’s BMW Sauber on 1m 26.486s, Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull on 1m 28.735s, Timo Glock who matched that exactly for Virgin in that team’s best showing yet, and Robert Kubica who… yes, believe it or not finally made a mistake! He was one of many to slide off the road in his Renault, in which he recorded a best lap of 1m 28.903s.
In the next batch came Red Bull’s Mark Webber on 1m 29.048s, Jarno Trulli on 1m 29.280s for Lotus, Toro Rosso’s Jamie Alguersuari on 1m 29.366s, Hamilton, whose 1m 29.429s left him ninth at the time of his shunt, Virgin’s Lucas di Grassi on 1m 29.500s, Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso on 1m 29.684s and BMW Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi on 1m 29.690s. Formula 1
Pos No Driver Team Time/Retired 1 14 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 01:25.7 2 7 Felipe Massa Ferrari 01:26.9 3 1 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 01:26.9 4 9 Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 01:26.9 5 12 Vitaly Petrov Renault 01:26.9 6 4 Nico Rosberg Mercedes GP 01:27.4 7 16 Sebastien Buemi STR-Ferrari 01:28.1 8 10 Nico Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 01:28.2 9 15 Vitantonio Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 01:28.3 10 22 Pedro de la Rosa BMW Sauber-Ferrari 01:28.5 11 5 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault 01:28.7 12 24 Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 01:28.7 13 11 Robert Kubica Renault 01:28.9 14 6 Mark Webber RBR-Renault 01:29.0 15 18 Jarno Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 01:29.3 16 17 Jaime Alguersuari STR-Ferrari 01:29.4 17 2 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 01:29.4 18 25 Lucas di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 01:29.5 19 8 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 01:29.7 20 23 Kamui Kobayashi BMW Sauber-Ferrari 01:29.7 21 19 Fairuz Fauzy Lotus-Cosworth 01:30.9 22 21 Bruno Senna HRT-Cosworth 01:31.7 23 3 Michael Schumacher Mercedes GP 01:32.5 24 20 Sakon Yamamoto HRT-Cosworth 01:32.8
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