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Wurz Quickest in Practice 1 - Germany

McLaren took the early advantage in Friday's opening practice for the German Grand Prix when test driver Alex Wurz topped the times as closest rivals Renault chose to stay in the garage and limit their mileage

McLaren made the most of their third car advantage to allow Wurz to run 21 laps as he set a best time of 1:14.277 to beat Toyota test driver Ricardo Zonta to the top spot by 0.616 seconds.

Under overcast skies with temperatures of 21 degrees the McLarens were dominant and Kimi Raikkonen, who is 26 points down on Championship leader Fernando Alonso, was the fastest race driver some 1.357 seconds off the pace in third.

His teammate Juan Pablo Montoya finished fifth fastest, just behind Briton Jenson Button in his BAR-Honda, while World Champion Michael Schumacher and Ferrari teammate Rubens Barrichello claimed sixth and seventh respectively.

Vitantonio Liuzzi was eighth fastest in Red Bull Racing's third car while Takuma Sato, in the second BAR-Honda, and Ralf Schumacher, in the second Toyota, completed the top ten runners.

Alonso, who only needs to continue finishing in the high points positions to secure the title, joined his Renault teammate Giancarlo Fisichella in not to setting a timed lap as they limited running to maximise engine reliability.

Nicolas Kiesa, making his debut for Jordan in their third car, was the first driver out on track but Alex Wurz, who replaced Pedro de la Rosa in the third McLaren, set the first time of the day with a lap of 1:17.376.

Christian Klien was off the circuit within three minutes of the session when he made a mistake at turn nine but he returned to the track, as did Vitantonio Liuzzi and Narain Karthikeyan, who went off at turns six and one respectively.

The session saw Zonta and Wurz continually swapping times with Zonta on top with half the session gone, then Wurz bettered it, Zonta moved back ahead again and finally Wurz claimed the top spot.

Pos  Driver        Team                   Time                  Laps
 1.  Wurz          McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:14.277               21
 2.  Zonta         Toyota            (M)  1:14.893  +    0.616   27
 3.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:15.634  +    1.357    9
 4.  Button        BAR-Honda         (M)  1:15.851  +    1.574   16
 5.  Montoya       McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:15.901  +    1.624    9
 6.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari           (B)  1:16.259  +    1.982   20
 7.  Barrichello   Ferrari           (B)  1:16.280  +    2.003   17
 8.  Liuzzi        Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:16.733  +    2.456   26
 9.  Sato          BAR-Honda         (M)  1:16.795  +    2.518   16
10.  R.Schumacher  Toyota            (M)  1:17.197  +    2.920   14
11.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:17.277  +    3.000   14
12.  Trulli        Toyota            (M)  1:17.341  +    3.064   14
13.  Klien         Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:17.423  +    3.146   13
14.  Massa         Sauber-Petronas   (M)  1:17.442  +    3.165   13
15.  Heidfeld      Williams-BMW      (M)  1:17.665  +    3.388   10
16.  Webber        Williams-BMW      (M)  1:17.689  +    3.412   10
17.  Villeneuve    Sauber-Petronas   (M)  1:18.132  +    3.855    8
18.  Karthikeyan   Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:18.988  +    4.711   21
19.  Albers        Minardi-Cosworth  (B)  1:19.151  +    4.874   19
20.  Monteiro      Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:19.400  +    5.123   19
21.  Kiesa         Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:19.933  +    5.656   25
22.  Doornbos      Minardi-Cosworth  (B)  1:20.108  +    5.831   17
23.  Fisichella    Renault           (M)  No Time                 2
24.  Alonso        Renault           (M)  No Time                 2

All timing unofficial

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