Van der Zande tops practice day

The Hitech driver was one of the pacesetters at Rockingham last weekend, but failed to finish either race after getting taken out by other drivers.

Van der Zande possesses a wealth of experience at the German venue and put all of it to good use straightaway to top the morning session by 0.287s from Hitech team-mate Walter Grubmuller.

The ex-Euro Series ace then lapped the Hockenheimring in a 1m33.147s best in the faster afternoon session, edging out championship leader Daniel Ricciardo (Carlin) by just 0.030s after trading quickest times throughout.

Hitech driver coach Warren Hughes said: "We were always looking forward to coming here because we marked it out as a track we thought we'd be strong at.

"Renger has lots of experience and is very clued up as to where you need to be on the circuit. He has a lot of confidence and is keen to make up for the disappointment of last week."

Marcus Ericsson followed up on his maiden British F3 win, and Double R's first for 12 months, at Rockingham last week by going third fastest, two tenths off the pace.

Ricciardo's Carlin team-mate Max Chilton set fourth fastest time - matching the Australian around most of the circuit, but losing time in the challenging right-hander at Turn 1.

Grubmuller slipped to fifth fastest in the afternoon, 0.017s clear of the other winner at Rockingham, JTR's Nick Tandy, who spent the first session getting up to speed with the unfamiliar track before upping his pace in the afternoon to round out the top six.

F2 points leader Robert Wickens, who also has previous experience of Hockenheim and has been drafted in to help Carlin this weekend, set the fifth fastest time in the morning session but slipped to 10th in the afternoon despite finding two tenths.

By contrast, T-Sport's Adriano Buzaid set fourth quickest time in the morning, but looked wild out on track in the afternoon, lost two tenths and slipped to 12th, just ahead of fellow Brazilian Gabriel Dias, who was again the fastest of the National Class runners and split his championship class T-Sport team-mates in 13th overall in session two.

Henry Arundel (Carlin) suffered a heavy off at Turn 1 early in the session and deformed the rear end of his Dallara-Volkswagen, but the car will be repaired in time for qualifying this afternoon.

Pos Driver                   Team              Car          Time
 1. Renger van der Zande     Hitech            D/M     1m33.147s
 2. Daniel Ricciardo         Carlin            D/V     1m33.177s
 3. Marcus Ericsson          Double R          D/M     1m33.353s
 4. Max Chilton              Carlin            D/V     1m33.518s
 5. Walter Grubmuller        Hitech            D/M     1m33.598s
 6. Nick Tandy               JTR               M/M     1m33.758s
 7. Carlos Huertas           Double R          D/M     1m33.785s
 8. Riki Christodoulou       Fortec            D/M     1m33.830s
 9. Victor Garcia            Fortec            D/M     1m33.952s
10. Robert Wickens           Carlin            D/V     1m34.064s
11. Adriano Buzaid           T-Sport           D/V     1m34.117s
12. Daisuke Nakajima         Double R          D/M     1m34.262s
13. Gabriel Dias             T-Sport           D/H     1m34.423s
14. Henry Arundel            Carlin            D/V     1m34.528s
15. Wayne Boyd               T-Sport           D/V     1m34.718s
16. Daniel McKenzie          Fortec            D/H     1m35.045s
17. Hywel Lloyd              CF Racing         D/H     1m35.333s
18. Jay Bridger              Litespeed         M/H     1m35.678s
19. Stephane Richelmi        Barazi Epsilon    D/M     1m36.134s
20. Victor Correa            Litespeed         S/H     1m37.818s