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.

Jean Todt: "A bit of a short day today. In the first hour, we left it to other drivers, especially the test drivers, to clean up the track and in the second, we were waiting for the track to dry out after the light rain. This meant the work programme had to be compressed into the final half hour, in terms of working on the set-up of the car and on evaluating the behaviour of the Bridgestone tyres.
 

"Obviously, it is much too early to draw any conclusions, but there are no apparent reasons why our package should not be competitive, as has been the case in the last few races. We have to wait for qualifying to see if our package is good enough to beat our rivals and even more importantly in the race itself."

Michael Schumacher: "At the moment, the situation seems pretty good, but we have to bear in mind that other teams have carried out difference work programmes in terms of tyres today, which also explains the difference in the times. The weather reduced the track time at our disposal. Now we must study the data gathered carefully to get a realistic idea of the pecking order, but I think we have not yet seen the true potential of some of the teams."

Felipe Massa: "It was a good day. Even though we did not run much, I immediately felt the car was well balanced and the Bridgestone tyres worked well. Therefore, I am happy with what we achieved today, while knowing we still have a lot to do. All in all, we can say we have started this race weekend a bit better than on some other occasions and so I am feeling optimistic."

Ross Brawn: "The weather shortened the time available to us in the second hour of free practice which is why we only have a snapshot of the situation rather than a full picture. All the same, initial indications seem good. Obviously, the track is still very dirty and there's not much grip, but that will change over the weekend. The car is well balanced and quite quick. In conclusion, a pretty good first day."