“Rain was the main feature of this Friday in Hockenheim. The first session was run almost entirely on a wet track, while rain threatened for much of the second one, finally arriving a few minutes after the chequered flag. The two Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro drivers completed a total of 114 laps: 50 for Fernando Alonso, who set the fastest time of the day overall and 64 for Felipe Massa, second fastest this morning in the wet. “It is always best to start a race weekend in this fashion, but we are perfectly aware that today’s results are even less meaningful than usual,” commented Stefano Domenicali. “Furthermore, at the last two races, we have seen our drivers in the top places on Friday afternoon and everyone knows how it ended up… But superstition apart, we wanted to get through our planned programme and we did so, despite the weather which was very changeable. Now we have to work towards qualifying, which I expect to be very closely contested and then the race. From what we have seen so far, the Red Bull is stll the quickest car, but we are competitive."

Fernando Alonso: “We have seen before on Fridays that we are very competitive and then on Saturday, the Red Bulls are clearly quicker, so we have to take this result with a grain of salt: in order to be in front tomorrow, we will have to do something out of the ordinary. Today’s changeable weather made for a different day to usual, making it even harder to get a true picture of the hierarchy among the teams: you only had to use the softs five minutes later to gain half a second. We concentrated on our work and now we have to analyse the data to be as well prepared as possible for qualifying and the race. In terms of set-up we are on the right road, although we need to improve the balance of the car. With these track conditions, combined with quite low temperatures, it is important to be very careful with the tyres, so as not to ruin them immediately, especially the softs, so as to be able to evaluate their degradation for the race. From what we could see, there are no particular surprises in store.”

Felipe Massa: “A good start to the weekend here in Hockenheim, but it is still much too soon to say where we are compared to our main opponents. The changing weather conditions will play an important role and we must be as well prepared as possible to tackle the various possible scenarios: for example if qualifying takes place in the wet and the race in the dry. It will be important to understand the behaviour of the tyres and from what we can gather in similar conditions, the softs are pretty good, while the hards are definitely too hard for this track. The latest updates introduced on the F10 also seem to be working well, confirming the progress made on the car. I would like to take this occasion to congratulate Sauber on its forty years in racing: I started my Formula 1 career with them and I really hope they stay in this sport for a long time.”

Chris Dyer: “It was quite a productive day. Despite the changing weather, which definitely didn’t help, we nevertheless managed to work through practically all the planned programme. We have a few new technical updates on the F10, which seem to have given us something extra in terms of car performance. We managed to evaluate both types of dry tyre and our drivers felt relatively comfortable with both the hard and the soft, and equally pleased with the car. On a track like this, the gaps are shortened, so we can expect a very close fight tomorrow in qualifying. Furthermore, today’s times have to be seen as less representative than usual given the rapid change in track conditions. Tomorrow’s forecast is for rain in the morning, while for qualifying, at least according to the latest bulletin from the middle of this afternoon, should take place in the dry, as should Sunday’s race.”

Hockenheim, 23 July 2010 – The rain that arrived yesterday in the Baden Wuerttenberg region that is home to the Hockenheimring was still with us at the track today, mainly in the morning, when the first ninety minutes of practice was held either in the rain or at least on a damp track. The second free practice session was held under ominous clouds, but apart from a few drops, it held off long enough for teams to carry out a proper evaluation of the dry specification Bridgestone tyres.

The Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro cars seemed competitive in all track conditions, as Felipe Massa was second fastest in the morning and third fastest in the afternoon, when his team-mate Fernando Alonso topped the time sheet, followed by the ever present Red Bull threat in the shape of Sebastian Vettel. Winner of the last round at Silverstone, Mark Webber, was fourth fastest in the other Red Bull, with Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher in their Mercedes finishing fifth and sixth to ensure there were three German drivers in the top six for their home race.

Needless to say, the changing weather made for a very busy, but somewhat erratic practice, but the Scuderia concentrated on its programme, which included evaluating some components on the F10, as part of the policy of introducing updates at every race. Despite today’s good showing, the Scuderia is keeping its feet firmly on the ground, as the changing track conditions made it even harder than usual to understand what all the teams were doing and timing runs dependent on the weather made a big difference to lap times. At the moment, there is no reason to believe that Red Bull will not be the dominant force in tomorrow’s grid-deciding qualifying session, but it is equally clear the Fernando and Felipe should definitely put up a good fight.

With the generally stormy weather affecting the area, accurate predictions are hard to come by, but the current status is that the rain tyres could be required in tomorrow morning’s final free practice session, but for the rest of the weekend, they can stay at the back of the garage. Either way, the fact the Hockenheim lap is quite short – Fernando’s quickest one today only took 1.16.265 – means that the whole field will be very closely matched, so that everything will have to work perfectly for qualifying as the slightest slip-up can mean the difference between a place on the front row or something much further down the order.

Hockenheim, July 23 2010 – The Ferrari of Fernando Alonso set the fastest time (1.16.265) of the second session of free practice for the German Grand Prix that has just finished at Hockenheim.

At the end of the 90-minute session the Spanish driver led the way, ahead of Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull (1.16.294) and his Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa (1.16.438). The session took place on a track with a dry line but that remained wet in some parts due to the morning’s rain at the German circuit.

On a first day of action that was complicated by the unstable weather conditions, the team managed to get through a good session, evaluating the performance of both tyre compounds. The Ferrari drivers carried out an important test on how the soft tyres behave with a high fuel load with an eye on the race before finishing on the harder set.

Tomorrow’s third and final session of free practice is scheduled for 11am in preparation for the decisive qualifying session.

Hockenheim, 23 July 2010 – This morning, the Formula 1 Circus which moved into Hockenheim yesterday for the eleventh round of the World Championship, woke up to find leaden skies and pouring rain with no break in the clouds. The bad weather, which is due to improve as from tomorrow for the rest of the weekend, looks like radically upsetting the work programme for the first free practice sessions today.

Certainly this morning, there will be no chance to run a comparison test on the two types of tyre brought to the German track by Bridgestone: because of the unusual qualities of the track, the Japanese company has brought tyres from either end of its range, namely the super soft and the hard. All the crews can do is hope track conditions improve so that practice for this important round can return to normal in the run up to Sunday’s important race.