Di Grassi on top before thunderstorm
Lucas di Grassi of reigning champions ART Grand Prix set the pace in practice at the Nurbugring, before the fickle Eifel climate struck again on Friday
The session was halted after 10 minutes as a huge thunderstorm struck the track, with only four dry laps on offer from the start of the session. Technically, the session was red-flagged because the safety helicopter couldn't fly with all the electrical activity in the area.
Di Grassi lapped in 1:42.328s, 0.134s faster than Luca Filippi (Super Nova), Andy Soucek (DPR), Adrian Zaugg (Arden), Borja Garcia (Durango) and Xandi Negrao (Minardi/Piquet).
The session was restarted in wet conditions for a further 10 minutes, having run out of its allotted 30-minute slot. Lightning continued to flash and thunder claps drowned out the noise of the V8-powered single-seaters as they splashed around.
Timo Glock (iSport) appeared to set the pace in the wet, getting closest to the two-minute barrier with a 2:00.9, while Silverstone winner Adam Carroll (FMS), Kazuki Nakajima (DAMS) and Soucek were also impressive.
The session also marked the return to action of Ernesto Viso following his Magny-Cours horror crash. He was an impressive seventh fastest in the dry, but was forced to sit out the wet running due to a gearbox problem.
The top 10 was rounded out by Giorgio Pantano, who went off after one lap of wet running at Turn 1.
In terms of the sector times, Carroll was fastest in the first two splits - but only ended up 21st. Filippi was fastest in sector three.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Di Grassi ART Grand Prix 1:42.328 10 2. Filippi Super Nova International 1:42.462 + 0.134 11 3. Soucek DPR 1:42.582 + 0.254 11 4. Zaugg Arden International 1:42.749 + 0.421 10 5. Garcia Durango 1:42.845 + 0.517 10 6. Negrao Minardi Piquet Sports 1:42.874 + 0.546 11 7. Viso Racing Engineering 1:43.083 + 0.755 4 8. Pantano Campos Grand Prix 1:43.109 + 0.781 6 9. Glock iSport International 1:43.203 + 0.875 11 10. Petrov Campos Grand Prix 1:43.246 + 0.918 10 11. Hirate Trident Racing 1:43.323 + 0.995 10 12. Zuber iSport International 1:43.344 + 1.016 10 13. Nakajima DAMS 1:43.564 + 1.236 11 14. Tung BCN Competicion 1:44.287 + 1.959 11 15. Maldonado Trident Racing 1:44.338 + 2.010 10 16. Conway Super Nova International 1:44.592 + 2.264 10 17. Rodriguez Minardi Piquet Sports 1:44.921 + 2.593 11 18. Bakkerud DPR 1:45.462 + 3.134 10 19. Yamamoto BCN Competicion 1:45.467 + 3.139 10 20. Senna Arden International 1:45.673 + 3.345 10 21. Carroll FMS International 1:45.693 + 3.365 10 22. Lapierre DAMS 1:46.193 + 3.865 11 23. Tahinci FMS International 1:46.410 + 4.082 10 24. Villa Racing Engineering 1:46.879 + 4.551 10 25. Chandhok Durango 1:47.872 + 5.544 11 26. Buemi ART Grand Prix 1:53.734 + 11.406 9
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