On a dry track with dark clouds menacing overhead, McLaren and Ferrari slugged it out in the first practice session at the Nurburging this morning. Lewis Hamilton emerged top of the timesheets closely followed by Kimi Raikkonen. Alonso finished third with BMW pushing hard, both cars finishing ahead of the second Ferrari of Felipe Massa.
All eyes were on Markus Winkelhock as he made his debut for Spyker on-track. He ended the morning practice slowest out of the 22 cars, a full 0.8 seconds behind his team-mate.
Honda s recently resigned drivers appeared to steady practice session with Button finishing eighth and Barrichello finishing tenth. The Renault s had a tough session finishing in 18th and 19th. Fisichella also took a detour as he spun through the gravel at the newly named Schumacher S.
Although the circuit is fairly grippy, Fisichella was not the only driver to go off-track. Massa made a mistake in Turns 3 & 4, Winkelhock in Turn 4, Speed in Turn 6 and Schumacher in Turn 10. Luckily, no major incidents happened and all the drivers were able to continue.
Unofficial Times for Practice Session 1:
