Petrov fastest in Nurburgring practice

Petrov took his place at the head of the field early in the session and never looked like being toppled, his time leaving him almost half a second clear of ART's Nico Hulkenberg. The German in turn edged out Piquet's Roldan Rodriguez, current points leader Romain Grosjean in the second Addax car and Pastor Maldonado (ART).

Most drivers made through the half-hour run without incident, although it was a difficult session for FMS, with Andi Zuber coming to a halt in the pit entry after five laps, and Luiz Razia losing it on the exit of the Ford Kurve after the chequered flag had been waved and slamming backwards into the inside barriers.

Durango's Nelson Panciatici was the only other driver to disappear early after his car stopped at the final corner with seven minutes remaining.

Pos  Driver               Team                Time       Gap
 1.  Vitaly Petrov        Addax               1m38.752s
 2.  Nico Hulkenberg      ART                 1m39.200s  + 0.448s
 3.  Roldan Rodriguez     Piquet              1m39.270s  + 0.518s
 4.  Romain Grosjean      Addax               1m39.292s  + 0.540s
 5.  Pastor Maldonado     ART                 1m39.335s  + 0.583s
 6.  Lucas di Grassi      Racing Engineering  1m39.347s  + 0.595s
 7.  Luca Filippi         Super Nova          1m39.450s  + 0.698s
 8.  Alvaro Parente       Ocean               1m39.485s  + 0.733s
 9.  Edoardo Mortara      Arden               1m39.652s  + 0.900s
10.  Karun Chandhok       Ocean               1m39.882s  + 1.130s
11.  Javier Villa         Super Nova          1m39.895s  + 1.143s
12.  Davide Valsecchi     Durango             1m40.089s  + 1.337s
13.  Luiz Razia           Fisichella          1m40.192s  + 1.440s
14.  Diego Nunes          iSport              1m40.211s  + 1.459s
15.  Alberto Valerio      Piquet              1m40.224s  + 1.472s
16.  Andreas Zuber        Fisichella          1m40.264s  + 1.512s
17.  Sergio Perez         Arden               1m40.318s  + 1.566s
18.  Kamui Kobayashi      DAMS                1m40.346s  + 1.594s
19.  Michael Herck        DPR                 1m40.413s  + 1.661s
20.  Giedo van der Garde  iSport              1m40.504s  + 1.752s
21.  Daniel Clos          Racing Engineering  1m40.569s  + 1.817s
22.  Jerome D'Ambrosio    DAMS                1m40.773s  + 2.021s
23.  Franck Perera        DPR                 1m41.391s  + 2.639s
24.  Rodolfo Gonzalez     Trident             1m41.910s  + 3.158s
25.  Nelson Panciatici    Durango             1m42.537s  + 3.785s
26.  Ricardo Teixeira     Trident             1m43.797s  + 5.045s