Hartley fastest as FR3.5 resumes

On his return to the series following recent Formula 3 Euro Series commitments with Carlin Motorsport, Hartley's 1m47.230s was assisted by fitting new tyres. Charles Pic finished four tenths of a second adrift of Hartley to complete a Tech 1 Racing one-two, but unlike the Red Bull Junior driver, Pic began the day on tyres which had already completed 60km of running.

Former Formula Master champion Chris van der Drift was another to benefit from fresh rubber in third, 0.018s ahead of series returnee Salvador Duran. In his maiden Formula Renault 3.5 appearance of the season, the Mexican took little time to reacquaint himself with the Interwetten team where he had scored two wins between 2007 and 2008.

Championship leader Bertrand Baguette and nearest adversary James Walker were next up in fifth and sixth. Walker's P1 Motorsport team boss Roly Vincini was ebullient to have made it to Nurburgring after his factory was destroyed by fire on August 26.

"It was unbelievable, you can't imagine everything that you need to get going," said Vincini. "The guys have worked from 4am to 9pm, for 10 days running. Everything that you need, jigs, tools, two sets of scales, air jacks, radios, damper dyno' from multimatic, everything you need for a race team... I stole! Just the tool box and place where we keep our radios took someone two weeks to build.

"It was the confidence from our insurance company that made it possible. I didn't think we could do it, but I have to say a massive thanks to Paul Edwards of Travellers insurance who paid Dallara, or Renault, in four days. He made sure it all happened. We also thought we had lost all of our data, but luckily our engineer, Rodrigo, had made sure he had backed everything up on his own computer as a triple fail safe."

There is much attention on Fairuz Fauzy's Malaysian outfit Mofaz Fortec in the wake of this week's announcement that Lotus's 2010 Formula 1 entry had been accepted. Lotus team principal and Air Asia CEO Tony Fernandes is expected to make an appearance in support of the team this weekend. Air Asia was unveiled as a sponsor of the team earlier this month. Fauzy started the weekend with the seventh fastest time.

Epsilon Euskadi was happy with "the slow but solid steps" taken by Formula Nippon racer Keisuke Kunimoto on his series debut. Last year's Macau Formula 3 Grand Prix winner propped up the time sheets in the seat formerly occupied by Dani Clos, but is within a tenth of a second of his nearest competitor.

Ultimate Motorsport is not in attendance in Germany. The team had been left searching for a driver to partner Miguel Molina following Greg Mansell's sudden departure after August's Portimao meeting.

Pos  Driver                Team             Time       Gap
 1.  Brendon Hartley       Tech 1           1m47.230s
 2.  Charles Pic           Tech 1           1m47.684s  + 0.454s
 3.  Chris van der Drift   Epsilon Euskadi  1m47.706s  + 0.476s
 4.  Salvador Duran        Interwetten      1m47.724s  + 0.494s
 5.  Bertrand Baguette     Draco            1m47.965s  + 0.735s
 6.  James Walker          P1               1m47.998s  + 0.768s
 7.  Fairuz Fauzy          Fortec           1m48.062s  + 0.832s
 8.  Pasquale di Sabatino  RC               1m48.246s  + 1.016s
 9.  Marco Barba           Draco            1m48.284s  + 1.054s
10.  Jon Lancaster         Comtec           1m48.330s  + 1.100s
11.  Oliver Turvey         Carlin           1m48.583s  + 1.353s
12.  Mihai Marinescu       Interwetten      1m48.774s  + 1.544s
13.  Marcos Martinez       Pons             1m48.786s  + 1.556s
14.  Sten Pentus           Fortec           1m48.792s  + 1.562s
15.  Federico Leo          Pons             1m49.013s  + 1.783s
16.  Daniil Move           P1               1m49.056s  + 1.826s
17.  Filip Salaquarda      Prema            1m49.244s  + 2.014s
18.  Jaime Alguersuari     Carlin           1m49.317s  + 2.087s
19.  John Martin           Comtec           1m49.502s  + 2.272s
20.  Julian Leal           Prema            1m49.877s  + 2.647s
21.  Guillaume Moreau      SG               1m49.937s  + 2.707s
22.  Anton Nebylitskiy     SG               1m50.225s  + 2.995s
23.  Keisuke Kunimoto      Epsilon Euskadi  1m50.399s  + 3.169s