Lewis Hamilton showed that he still has the power to win the world championship by dominating FP1 at the Nurburgring.
The young driver put his McLaren on top, 2 tenths ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in the Ferrari. He would have done it sooner in the session than he did, but going wide at the RTL Kurve early on put pay to a very fast lap time.
That said, Kimi Raikkonen threw his Ferrari around the German track andput it into second well towards the end, on the softer ccompound tyre. He had spent most of the session in 5th and 6th place.
Alonso managed to grab 3rd in the dying seconds, after a relitively poor session. The Spaniard being somewhere around the top 6 for the entireity made some interesting mistakes, including one with Felipe Massa where Alonso cut the chicane completly.
Heidfeld and Kubica got demoted to 4th and 5th places, after early runs on the softer compund tyre put them 2nd and 3rd respectively. Kubica complained of his soft tyre’s “Going off” in the final sector, something we shall have to watch for in tomorrow’s qualifying.
Felipe Massa struggled to a poor 6th place.
Ralf Schumacher was the fastest of the 2 Toyota’s for a change, he managed 7th place not too far behind Massa. Jarno Trulli in the other Toyota made 11th place.
Splitting them are 2 of the Honda’s, Button in 8th and Barrichello in 10th. Both have recently re-signed contracts, a revamped aero package and team seem to be slowly paying dividends.
In 9th is David Coulthard in the Red Bull Racing.
Wurz and Rosberg occupy 12th and 13th in what was a fairly quiet session for the Grove-Team, although at one point Alex Wurz was fastest!
Anthony Davidson brought the Super Aguri back in 14th ahead of Webber in the Red Bull and Davidson’s team mate Sato who was 16th.
The Toro Rosso’s didnt have a very successful session, Tonio Liuzzi managed 17th and Speed was 20th. They seem to be struggling with their set-ups.
It was a dismal and shocking session for Renault though. They were 18th and 19th. Kovalainen just nipping ahead of Fisichella. It was a big surprise, and we dnot really know what has happened to them. They were slow.
Spyker were at the back again, Sutil stayed in touch with the pack but new man Markus Winkelhock was in last with a lap time nearly 2 seconds slower than Sutil’s.
Thunderstorms predicted in the weather could make this afternoon’s session very interesting indeed.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:32.515 26
2. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:32.751 + 0.236 24
3. Alonso McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:32.932 + 0.417 27
4. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) 1:32.975 + 0.460 35
5. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) 1:33.205 + 0.690 34
6. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:33.605 + 1.090 24
7. R.Schumacher Toyota (B) 1:33.825 + 1.310 32
8. Button Honda (B) 1:33.936 + 1.421 28
9. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:34.062 + 1.547 25
10. Barrichello Honda (B) 1:34.142 + 1.627 25
11. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:34.152 + 1.637 34
12. Wurz Williams-Toyota (B) 1:34.345 + 1.830 32
13. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) 1:34.563 + 2.048 32
14. Davidson Super Aguri-Honda (B) 1:34.567 + 2.052 30
15. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:34.683 + 2.168 22
16. Sato Super Aguri-Honda (B) 1:34.708 + 2.193 36
17. Liuzzi Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:34.907 + 2.392 31
18. Kovalainen Renault (B) 1:34.921 + 2.406 21
19. Fisichella Renault (B) 1:35.077 + 2.562 22
20. Speed Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:35.643 + 3.128 15
21. Sutil Spyker-Ferrari (B) 1:36.340 + 3.825 22
22. Winkelhock Spyker-Ferrari (B) 1:37.116 + 4.601 30
