Trulli laments lack of running

The Italian, who is yet to score a point this season after being his by all sorts of problems, was the only driver who failed to set a time during today's sessions after completing just six laps in total.

Both his car and teammate Ralf Schumacher's were hit by heavy vibrations that continued for Trulli in the afternoon.

"This is like our home race because it is close to the factory, so we have hopes to perform even better because we have a lot of supporters and employees cheering us on," said Trulli.

"The practice sessions today turned out to be quite difficult because we had some issues with my car and therefore I could only complete a few laps. We could not solve the problem during practice in time for me to go out and do some meaningful running, but the team will take the car apart completely to find the source of this concern."

Despite the early problems, Schumacher enjoyed a better session, finishing as sixth quickest.

"It was good to be back at the Nurburgring and the weather here was surprisingly good considering how this region is always so unpredictable," he said. "Overall, today's preparations went relatively well. We finished our planned programme of set-up and tyre work on my car.

"We are still searching for grip and pushing to get more out of our package, and although the tyre performance is improving, it is difficult to say on Friday how the weekend will unfold."