Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello ended the second hour of today’s free practice for Sunday's German Grand Prix in tenth and sixteenth places, posting slower times than in the morning session.

The reason for this unusual situation can be traced to concerns about the weather. The usual Hockenheim heatwave has yet to appear this weekend and Scuderia Ferrari’s weather forecast reckoned there was a strong chance of some rain showers this afternoon. Therefore the decision was taken to reverse the usual Friday programme which sees the drivers do a limited number of laps in the morning when the track can be dirty and lack grip, before putting in more laps in the afternoon to properly evaluate the two types of tyre supplied by Bridgestone.

Today, most of that tyre evaluation was done in the morning, leaving Michael and Rubens to run on used rubber in the afternoon. As events turned out, the rain arrived, but about one hour after the end of practice. Even allowing for this unusual programme and the standard uncertainties about the fuel loads in the other cars, the general feeling is that the Ferrari F2005 lacks performance compared to the pace setters at the head of the field. On the positive side, both drivers were happy with their cars’ handling and the performance a new compound of tyre that Bridgestone has introduced here.

McLaren-Mercedes continues to be the dominant force with three cars in the top four: Alex Wurz first, Kimi Raikkonen second and, winner of the last race at Silverstone, Montoya in fourth. Splitting them in third spot is the Renault of Fernando Alonso. Ricardo Zonta is fifth for Toyota followed by the Renault of Giancarlo Fisichella. Changes on the driver front: formerly Jordan’s Friday driver, Robert Doornbos takes over the Minardi race seat vacated by Friesacher, thus forming the first ever all-Dutch driver line-up with team-mate Christijan Albers. Nicholas Kiesa replaced Doornbos at Jordan today.
 

Jean Todt: “As usual, today’s work focused on comparing the two different types of tyre that Bridgestone has made available to us and to finding the best set-up on the F2005. We decided to run the new tyre comparison in the morning as there was a risk of a short shower in the afternoon hour. We have acquired quite a bit of data and now it is down to the engineers to assess it. It is too early to have an accurate idea of the pecking order down the pit lane. In fact, there are too many unknowns, for example the amount of fuel on board and the way the tyres were used.”

Michael Schumacher: “I think we did a reasonable job today, getting through much of our programme in the morning session, in case we had to deal with a wet track in the afternoon, when we ended up using old tyres. The car was handling well, but as expected we lack performance. At this stage of the weekend, I would still hope we can manage to finish on the podium, but it will be tough.”

Rubens Barrichello: “We expected rain so we concentrated most of our effort in the early part of the day, so I did not get the benefit of running with new tyres when the track was at its best. But I have a good idea about what I want to do in terms of tyre choice, so I am confident that tomorrow will be a good day, whatever the weather.”

Ross Brawn: “Because we thought there was a chance of rain this afternoon, we ran the new tyres in the morning session. This means that our times in the second session were actually slower and so they are not an accurate reflection of our performance level, as we were therefore using old tyres this afternoon. We have a new tyre compound here which looks quite promising and now we must look at the wear rate figures to see if we can use it for the race. If we can, then I think we will have a good race, because although we do not have the fastest car on track, our consistency on the long runs looks good.”

Free practice - First session: Michael Schumacher: 6th 1.16.259 20 laps chassis 245; Rubens Barrichello: 7th 1.16.280 17 laps chassis 246; Temperatures: air 20/21 °C, track 23/26 °C

Free practice – Second session: Michael Schumacher: 10th 1.16.474 15 laps chassis 245; Rubens Barrichello: 16th 1.16.913 17 laps chassis 246; Temperatures: air 20/21 °C, track 26/25 °C