Hockenheim, 28th July 2006

The usual two hours of free practice that forms the basis of Friday's workload for every grand prix was drastically shortened here in Germany today.

This morning, Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro took the decision not to run either of its two cars, as the track was very dirty and it was felt that the best plan was to let others, especially the Friday-only drivers who do the biggest distances on the day, clean it up. However, plans to instantly get on track in the second hour had to be changed when rain - much appreciated for clearing the air a bit - meant that most of the runners opted to wait until the track dried again after around half an hour. This meant the entire work programme was condensed into the final thirty minutes.

At the end of the day, Michael Schumacher was second quickest, while Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro team-mate, Felipe Massa was fifth. Although both men were generally happy with their first impressions of how the 248 F1 is working here at Hockenheim, they also expressed caution when it came to reading any significance into the times.


Michael was only out-performed by Robert Kubica, the Polish Williams driver who seems to have made the Number One Friday slot his personal property recently. Third was another Ferrari-engined driver in the shape of Red Bull Racing's tester, Robert Doornbos. Ahead of Felipe was the McLaren-Mercedes of Kimi Raikkonen, while rounding up the top six behind the Brazilian was Honda third driver, Anthony Davidson.

In 27th and last place is Sakon Yamamoto, the Japanese driver who makes his race debut this weekend for Super Aguri.