Adrian Sutil dominates free practice 1

The Hockenheim sky was not kind this Friday to the actors of the Formula 1. On Thursday, the downpours were already present, and they returned to welcome the pilots at the start of the day. Thus, it was on a wet circuit that most of this first session of the weekend took place, even if the track dried out as the kilometers covered by the drivers.

Many pilots were at the forefront and others made off-road forays. In this last area, it is Lewis Hamilton which stood out the most. The Briton, who had already driven very little, made a mistake in his third timed lap, damaging his MP4-25 against a wall of tires.

McLaren also worked a lot during this session, during which the team installed the low exhaust system blowing towards the rear diffuser. However, Jenson Button's third final time may indicate in which direction the team must work, and in particular concerning the settings of Lewis Hamilton's car, which has gathered little information.

On the other hand, some drivers showed their advantage, taking advantage of the track conditions to return to the top of the timesheet. Sébastien Buemi (Toro Rosso), Nico Hulkenberg (Williams), Nico Rosberg (Mercedes), Felipe Massa (Ferrari) and especially Adrian Sutil (Force India) showed pace during this session.

Thus, Sutil took the reins of the session at the start of the last half hour, in 1:28??411, before improving several times and finishing in 1:25??701. He is more than a second ahead of Felipe Massa (Ferrari, 1) and Jenson Button (McLaren, 26).

But the lessons from a free practice session being difficult to learn in normal times, it is even more complicated to estimate a hierarchy when the rain gets involved. If the sky remains mild at the start of the afternoon, the second free practice session should be more significant.