Sutil tops wet opening practice in Germany

Practice for the German Grand Prix kicked off this morning under heavy rain.

Teams and drivers were welcomed by a very wet track and had to tackle this first practice session with full wet tyres. With conditions so poor, it came as no surprise to see the drivers do a single installation lap before retreating into the pits.

Jaime Alguersuari was the first to venture out for a flying lap with twenty minutes gone. He set the first time on the board – 1’41’’068 – and improved it to 1’36’’605 on the following lap. He was joined on track by Sebastian Vettel. The Red Bull driver was three tenths of a second slower than the Spaniard, on his first timed lap, but it didn’t take long for the German to establish himself at the top of the timesheet.

Mark Webber then also came out and immediately made it a Red Bull one-two. It didn’t last long however as Alguersuari went fastest in his Toro Rosso. The Spaniard lapped the Hockenheim circuit in 1’32’’932 to take over at the front, six tenths of a second clear of Webber.

With an hour remaining, it was Massa who was leading from Alguersuari, Rosberg, Webber and Vettel. The Ferrari driver’s spell at the front was brief as Webber retook top spot a few minutes later with a 1’31’’019. As the Australian completed his first run, Nico Rosberg demoted him to second with a 1’30’’864. Massa then moved up to P2 while Sutil went 3rd fastest.

The rain eased off as the session approached its midway point. Rosberg further upped the pace and was the first to dip under the 1’30 barrier. Having fitted intermediate tyres, Mark Webber then took over at the front with a 1’29’’048. His teammate Vettel managed to go quicker, as well as Adrian Sutil. The Force India driver lapped in 1’28’’411 to take the lead.

Lap times continued to improve as the track conditions got better and Sutil set a fastest 1’27’’846. A few minutes after completing his first timed laps, Lewis Hamilton crashed his McLaren at Turn 3. There was heavy damage to the car and the Briton had to sit out the last twenty minutes of the session.

Bruno Senna lost his car at the final corner with less than ten minutes remaining and beached his HRT in the gravel.

The session finally ended with Sutil on top. The German set a fastest 1’25’’701 lap time to lead Massa and Button by more than a second. Barrichello was fourth fastest with Petrov fifth. Nico Rosberg set the sixth fastest time. He ended the session in front of Buemi, Hulkenberg, Liuzzi and de la Rosa.

Red Bull’s Vettel and Webber were 11th and 14th fastest respectively.

Hamilton was 17th fastest while Alonso was only 19th fastest. It was even worse for former multiple World Champion Michael Schumacher who could only set the 23rd fastest time. He was sandwiched between the HRTs of Senna and Yamamoto.