German GP Practice Summary - A little bit of Hamilton magic

Two practice sessions; two laps of pure Lewis Hamilton magic.

The Formula 1 teams took to the Hockenheimring today for practice and McLaren came out on top with their young British driver.

The first session began in rainy conditions with drivers tentatively snaking around the track on intermediate wet tyres. One hour later and the rain eased off allowing a dry line to develop and causing lap times to tumble.

As teams switched to dry rubber, Hamilton took the opportunity to clock a 1:15.537s which proved to be the benchmark for the session. Team-mate Heikki Kovalainen came close and was only a tenth off Hamilton's pace.

The Ferrari's of Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa sat out the beginning of the session until conditions became more favourable. On a more grippy track Massa was able to post a 1:15.796s but still seven tenths off Hamilton's McLaren. Raikkonen's time of 1:16.327s only placed him fifth fastest, beaten into fourth by the Renault of Fernando Alonso.

Further down the field the Williams F1 enjoyed a decent session with both Rosberg and Nakajima getting in among the top ten. BMW will take heart from a good showing by Nick Heidfeld but Robert Kubica's session ended abruptly when he spun on a wet patch coming into the stadium section. With only ten minutes remaining and a car planted firmly into the tyre wall he was unable to post any more times and ended up 18th fastest.

Sebastien Vettel showed Red Bull they'd made the right choice in signing him for 2009 by placing his Toro Rosso into 7th fastest with a 1:16.618 and beating both RBR drivers Webber and Coulthard who could only place 14th and 11th respectively.

Toro Rosso team-mate Sebastian Bourdais suffered mechanical problems earlier and couldn't improve on his time so ended the session in 20th.

Practice session 2 in the afternoon enjoyed more favourable conditions in the dry and with higher track temperatures McLaren and Ferrari exchanged fastest laps until Felipe Massa finally took control half way through.

The session started with teams getting out on the track early to take advantage of the dry track and Vettel posted the first benchmark time. Eventually the big guns emerged and Hamilton soon knocked him off the top spot within two laps. Lewis' time broke the 1:15s barrier and both Massa and Raikkonen had difficulty matching him as they struggled with a Ferrari that was slower in the twisty sections of the circuit.

Eventually Massa found the necessary speed on the harder tyre and clocked a 1:15.722 that looked to be unanswerable by either Hamilton or Kovalainen. The chasing pack couldn't break the 1:15s with the best of the rest being Mark Webber on 1:16.017. The BMW's were consistent but unremarkable and ended the session 8th (Heidfeld) and 9th (Kubica).

Rosberg and Alonso were within a tenth of each other with the Spaniard just a touch ahead of the young German who is enjoying his home grand prix. Williams other driver Nakajima could only put in 14 laps due to an engine misfire that kept him in the pits for much of the session.

However it was left to Lewis Hamilton to entertain the Hockenheim faithful at the death. His final lap of the afternoon was a stunner blowing away Massa's time by a full 0.7s. McLaren have well and truly thrown down the gauntlet for qualifying tomorrow.

See all the practice times here